fires goalie Dalen Kuchmey made 39 saves for the win, while Sault

BROSSARD, Que. -- Tomas Plekanec doesnt draw a lot of Selke Trophy votes as the NHLs best defensive forward, but coach Michel Therrien thinks he ought to. "He should be a serious candidate for sure," Therrien said Monday of his best two-way centre. "He does so many good things on the ice. "When we ask him to play against the other teams top lines, he always does the job and he can contribute on offence too." Plekanec and his right winger, captain Brian Gionta, play regularly against the top lines in the NHL. More often than not, the matchup works in Montreals favour. The 31-year-old Czech was at the top of his game in a 2-1 win on Saturday night over the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks. His unit with veteran Travis Moen on left wing for the night went up against the Blackhawks top line of 2013 Selke winner Jonathan Toews, Marian Hossa and Patrick Sharp. Plekanec got 19:36 of ice time, won 56 per cent of his faceoffs and had 11 shots on goal, although he failed to register a point. And Hossa made a sweet move to score in the third period, so Plekanec and his linemates ended the night at minus-1, despite playing perhaps their strongest game of the season. Plekanec said facing top centres, most of whom are much bigger than his five-foot-11 195-pound frame, has been his job for many years and he doesnt think about winning awards for it. "When you go on the ice against those guys you know that your job is to keep them as quiet as possible and try to get their focus on something else than scoring goals," he said. "Thats been my job for quite a few years here -- being a strong guy at both ends of the ice -- but its not up to me to decide that and its not really where my focus is. My focus is on winning the Stanley Cup with Montreal. Its nice to hear, but its not up to me." Despite his many scoring chances, Plekanec ended a three-game points streak. He has 14 goals and 14 assists and is plus-9 in 46 games this season, a little below his 33 points in 47 games in the lockout-shortened 2012-13 campaign. His best season was 70 points in 2009-10, but since then he has had more emphasis placed on his two-way game, with time on the second power play unit, and he has settled into a 50-plus points player. "When were good on defence, offence comes out of it," he said. "It think the main reason behind so many scoring chances last game is that we were so strong defensively. "We didnt get stuck in our own zone and we were good on the forecheck. Thats how you get offence." He is also on the first penalty killing unit with Moen on a team that ranks third in the league with an 86.4 per cent kill rate. Now he hopes the team can reproduce that effort when it plays host to the much less powerful attack of the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday night. The 26-15-5 Canadiens have tended to play up or down to their competition this season, which has made for some embarrassing defeats as well as uplifting wins like that against Chicago. The Devils (19-18-10) are coming off a 3-2 shootout loss to Toronto and have points in four straight games. "Weve got to find that consistency in our team play," said Plekanec. "I dont think weve been able to find it yet this year. "Its a good opportunity to come out strong against Jersey. Theyre a good team too, even if theyre not as high in the standings. Weve been playing good games and bad games. Were in a good spot in the standings and thats something we can be happy about, but we have to find a way to be better consistently." It appears Therrien will keep Moen on Plekanecs line. The gritty six-foot-two winger has played mostly on checking lines this season and has only one goal in 41 games. While fans sometimes dont appreciate what Moen brings to the game, Therrien said he is the kind of player that coaches like. "He doesnt do anything spectacular, but his positioning is good, he wins battles on the boards, he understands the game," said Therrien. "For me, Travis is having a good season. "Hes very respected by his teammates. We gave him a nice challenge on Saturday and he had a good game." A concern for Montreal is how its power play, which was scoring regularly early in the season, has sputtered. It has been without a goal in 14 chances over the last four games and has produced only six goals in the last 21. The team has been working on adjustments to a power play that may have become too dependent on setting up shots from the point, particularly from P.K. Subban. "Maybe we have to make some down-low plays instead of trying to feed P.K. for a shot because everyone knows he has a strong one-timer, but if we start making other plays, then things will open up for him again," said Plekanec. Plekanec is also gearing up to play for the Czech Republic at the Sochi Olympics, where hell serve as team captain. One of his teammates will be 42-year-old Peter Nedved, who has been playing in the Czech league since leaving the NHL in 2007. "He plays really well on the big ice and hes suited to that game, so I think hes going to be a pretty good asset," said Plekanec. "I think a lot of people will be surprised at how well hes going to play." Tytus Howard Texans Jersey . -- Canadas Milos Raonic defeated Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France on Saturday to advance to the third round of the BNP Paribas Open. DOnta Foreman Youth Jersey . -- Omar Infante walked past the visiting clubhouse at Kauffman Stadium, where he dressed so many times as a member of the Detroit Tigers, and slipped on a crisp, new Kansas City Royals jersey. http://www.officialhoustontexanspro.com/Cullen-gillaspia-texans-jersey/ .com) - St. Louis Blues right wing Vladimir Tarasenko, Detroit Red Wings center Pavel Datsyuk and Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury have been selected as the NHLs top players for last week. Tytus Howard Youth Jersey . The Toronto Argonauts (11-7) look for an opportunity to repeat as CFL champions when they host the surging Hamilton Tiger-Cats (10-8) on Sunday. Deshaun Watson Youth Jersey .ca. Hi Mr. Fraser, When I was watching the Heritage Classic in Vancouver there was a play midway through the third where Ottawa crashed the Canucks net and it came off its moorings.ERIE, Pa. - Otters goaltender Devin Williams made 28 saves to pick up his fourth shutout of the season as Erie blanked the visiting Saginaw Spirit 3-0 in Ontario Hockey League action on Thursday. Dylan Strome and Dane Fox each scored for the Otters (40-10-2), while Brendan Gaunce added a short-handed goal with 1:02 remaining in the game. Connor Brown picked up two assists. Jake Paterson stopped 21 of 23 shots for Saginaw (25-22-5) in the losing effort. --- STORM 8 STEELHEADS 0 GUELPH, Ont. — Robby Fabbri and Jason Dickinson each scored twice and added an assist as the Storm dominated Mississauga. Matt Finn scored a goal and helped on three others, Zac Leslie had a goal and an assist, Zack Mitchell had a goal and two assists, and Brock McGinn also scored for the Western Conference-leading Storm (40-9-3) to pull his tally to 33 on the season. Chase Marchand started in net for the Steelheads (20-29-4), but was pulled after giving up five goals on 28 shots through 40 minutes. Spencer Martin stopped 10 of 13 shots in relief. Guelph outshot Mississauga 41-24, holding the Steelheads to six shots in the second period. --- BATTALION 2 WOLVES 0 NORTH BAY, Ont. — Jake Smith turned away all 25 shots he faced as the Battalion edged Sudbury. After a scoreless first period, Barclay Goodrow scored his 24th of the season at 15:46 of the second to brake the stalemate for the Battalion (28-18-6). Vincent Praplan added his 16th of the year at 3:08 of the third to extend North Bays lead to 2-0. Franky Palazzese made 29 saves for Sudbury (27-16-8). --- PETES 4 GENERALS 3 (SO) PETERBOROUGH, Ont. — Josh MacDonald scored in regulation time and again in a shootout to lift the Petes over Oshawa in a penalty-filled affair which resulted in six game misconducts. Steven Varga and Connor Boland also scored for the Petes (24-23-4), who rracked up 51 penalty minutes on 19 infractions.dddddddddddd. Oshawa (32-15-5), which took 23 penalties totalling 55 minutes, got power-play goals from Mitchell Vande Sompel and Dylan Smoskowitz, while Bradley Latour added a short-handed goal. Daniel Altshuller started in net for the Generals, making all 18 saves before being handed a game misconduct penalty. Ken Appleby stopped 23-of-26 shots in relief. Peterborough goaltender Andrew DAgostino also got a game misconduct. He stopped 14 of 15 shots and Jason Da Silva made 19 saves on 21 shots in relief. --- SPITFIRES 4 GREYHOUNDS 3 WINDSOR, Ont. — Slater Koekkoek scored a power-play goal at 11:16 of the third period to lift the Spitfires over the Greyhounds. Remy Giftopoulos had a goal and two assists for Windsor (32-17-2), while Ben Johnson, and Steven Janes added the other Spitfire goals. Jared McCann, Patrick Watling and Tyler Gaudet replied for Sault Ste. Marie (35-13-5). Jean Dupuy chipped in with two assists. Spitfires goalie Dalen Kuchmey made 39 saves for the win, while Sault Ste. Maries Matt Murray turned aside 30 shots in the loss. --- FRONTENACS 10 COLTS 6 BARRIE, Ont. — Darcy Greenaway and Spence Watson each had two goals and one assist as the visiting Frontenacs toppled the Colts. Henri Ikonen had a goal and two assists and Ryan Verbeek scored a goal and helped on another for Kingston (28-19-4). Mikko Vainonen, Samuel Schutt, Warren Steele and Conor McGlynn also scored and Matt Mahalak made 23 saves for the win. Zach Hall scored a hat trick and added an assist for the Colts (25-22-3) while Andreas Athanasiou scored twice. Kevin Labanc added the other Barrie goal. Mackenzie Blackwood started in net for Barrie, but was pulled after he allowed seven goals on 31 shots through the first two periods. Daniel Gibl stopped 12 of 14 shots in relief. ' ' '