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The surging Montreal Canadiens will take aim at their seventh win in eight tries when they begin a four-game road trip with tonights clash against the Detroit Red Wings. Tom Seaver Authentic Jersey . You watch the game live on TSN at 7pm et/4pm pt or listen live on TSN Radio 690 Montreal. The Canadiens have won three straight and six of their past seven games, pushing them two points ahead of Tampa Bay for second place in the Atlantic Division. However, the Lightning, who host the New York Islanders on Thursday, do hold two games in hand over the Habs. Detroit, meanwhile, enters Thursday as one of four teams tied for the last two playoff berths in the Eastern Conference. With 80 points, the Red Wings are seven in back of Tampa Bay for last of the Atlantic Divisions three automatic playoff berths, meaning theyll likely need to claim one of the Easts two wild cards to qualify for a 23rd straight postseason. Columbus, Detroit, Toronto and Washington each have 80 points, but the Red Wings are the only team of that group in action on Thursday. The Blue Jackets and Red Wings have 10 games remaining in their regular-season schedules, while the Capitals and Maple Leafs have nine and eight games left, respectively. Montreal picked up its third straight win in Tuesdays home meeting against the lowly Buffalo Sabres. Max Pacioretty broke a scoreless deadlock with 9:07 to play and Carey Price posted a 24-save shutout to lift the Canadiens to the 2-0 win over the basement-dwelling Sabres. Danny Briere added an insurance marker with Montreal on the power play at 16:54 of the third, while Price stood tall down the stretch to help kill off a late Canadiens penalty and secure his fifth shutout of the season and 24th of his career. "The goal is to make the playoffs," Briere remarked. "Were in control of our destiny and trying to rack up as many points as we can." The Canadiens won despite playing without forwards Travis Moen and Dale Weise, who were injured on the same shift in Mondays 2-1 shootout win in Boston. Detroit, which will try to halt a two-game slide on Thursday, hasnt missed the playoffs since 1990. The Red Wings had a three-game winning streak snapped with Sundays overtime loss against visiting Minnesota and then fell 4-2 in an important road clash with Columbus on Tuesday. Cam Atkinson scored the winning goal for the Blue Jackets in the third period of Tuesdays game, but the decisive tally did not come without controversy. Columbus grabbed a 3-2 lead at 6:58 of the third period. The team skated the other way on a 2-on-1 and Matt Calvert let fly with a shot from the right wing that Red Wings goaltender Jimmy Howard stopped before Atkinson knocked in the rebound. However, the net was dislodged by Atkinson before the puck crossed the line, but Brendan Smith had pushed Atkinson into the net and the refs ruled it a good goal. "They knocked the net off and they still score," a frustrated Howard said. "I guess its something to remember in the back of our minds, you knock the net off it, just throw (the puck) in there. It should count." Ryan Johansen sealed the win for Columbus with an empty-net goal in the closing seconds. Gustav Nyquist had both goals for the Red Wings, while Howard made 24 stops on 27 shots. Beginning with Thursdays test, Detroit is playing four of its next five games on home ice. The Red Wings are only 15-11-10 as the host this season, but the club had won four straight in the Motor City before losing Sundays game against the Wild. Detroit is 2-0 against the Habs so far in 2013-14 and the clubs will meet once more in the regular season when Montreal hosts the Red Wings on April 5. The Red Wings have won four of five and six of eight overall in the series and have come out on top in the last two encounters at Joe Louis Arena. Montreal is opening a four-game road trip on Thursday and boasts a solid 20-14-2 record as the visiting club this season. Matt Harvey Mets Jersey . Bryan Murray made an announcement after the GMs meetings - and as was reported by Pierre LeBrun a couple of weeks ago - that Jason Spezza wants a trade out of Ottawa. Whats the latest on that? Pierre LeBrun: Yes, he made it public. Tug McGraw Jersey . LOUIS -- Walking Billy Hamilton to start the ninth inning was a bad sign for Trevor Rosenthal. KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine coach Oleh Blokhin has called up two uncapped goalkeepers for a training camp because of injuries ahead of the start of the European Championship next month. Oleksandr Bandura from Metalurh Donetsk and Maksym Koval from Dynamo Kyiv were included in the provisional 26-man squad announced Tuesday on the Ukrainian football federations website. They replace Oleksandr Shovkovskiy (shoulder surgery) and Andriy Dykan (facial injury), who have both been ruled out of Euro 2012. First-choice keeper Oleksandr Rybka is serving a two-year suspension for a doping offence and is likely to be replaced by Andriy Pyatov from Shakhtar Donetsk. Also missing was Shakhtar Donetsk defender Dmytro Chygrynskiy after an injury-plagued season. The federation said Blokhin would not comment on the squad until a news conference scheduled for Monday. Ukraine, which co-hosts the June 8-July 1 event with Poland, will travel to Turkey for a training camp from May 15-24, before heading to Germany and Austria for three friendly games against Estonia, Austria and Turkey. Ukraines first match at Euro 2012 is against Sweden on June 11 in Group D, which also includes France and England. Top goal scorer and talisman Andriy Shevchenko was included in the squad after recovering from injury. He is joined up front by Dynamo Kyiv teammate Artem Milevskiy and Dynamo Moscow veteran Andriy Voronin. Zack Wheeler Jersey. Dynamo Kyiv is represented by nine players, including young winger Andriy Yarmolenko. Champion Shakhtar Donetsk has six players in the squad. Defensive midfielder Anatoliy Tymoshchuk, Ukraines most experienced player with 114 caps, will join the team after his Bayern Munich faces Chelsea in the Champions League final on May 19. ------ Squad: Goalkeepers: Oleksandr Bandura (Metalurh Donetsk), Oleksandr Goryainov (Metalist Kharkiv), Maxym Koval (Dynamo Kyiv), Andriy Pyatov (Shakhtar Donetsk). Defenders: Bohdan Butko (Illychivets Mariupil), Olexandr Kucher (Shakhtar Donetsk), Vitaly Mandziuk (Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk), Taras Mikhalik (Dynamo Kyiv), Yaroslav Rakitskiy (Shakhtar Donetsk), Yevhen Selin (Vorskla Poltava), Yevhen Khacheridi (Dynamo Kyiv), Vyacheslav Shevchuk (Shakhtar Donetsk). Midfielders: Olexandr Aliyev (Dynamo Kyiv), Denys Garmash (Dynamo Kyiv), Oleh Gusev (Dynamo Kyiv), Yevhen Konoplyanka (Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk), Serhiy Nazarenko (Tavriya Simferopol), Ruslan Rotan (Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk), Taras Stepanenko (Dynamo Kyiv), Anatoliy Tymoshchuk (Bayern Munich), Andriy Yarmolenko (Dynamo Kyiv). Forwards: Andriy Voronin (Dinamo Moscow), Marko Devic (Metalist Kharkiv), Artem Milevskiy (Dynamo Kyiv), Yevhen Seleznyov (Shakhtar Donetsk), Andriy Shevchenko (Dynamo Kyiv). wholesale jerseys cheap jerseys ' ' ' |
