ROBERVAL, Que. - Montreal Canadiens forward Tomas Plekanec took his strong performance in Tuesday's pre-season game as a positive sign, even if it was just an exhibition match.
"Sure, it was only a pre-season game, but we wanted to get ourselves going," said Plekanec, who scored two goals in Montreal's 3-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres. "It doesn't always happen right away."
Roberval was selected to host the game after winning the Kraft Hockeyville 2008 contest.
Plekanec said he enjoyed playing there.
"It was special," he said. "It's nice to see all these people so happy to see us play."
Added Canadiens head coach Guy Carbonneau: "The atmosphere was great. Unless the players on the bench turned around to look behind them, I'm sure they felt like they were in an NHL arena."
Canadiens rookie David Desharnais, who spent last season in the ECHL, had an assist in his first game at the NHL level. After playing his junior with the nearby Chicoutimi Sagueneens, he said the setting was special to him.
"It felt awesome to play my very first NHL game near the town where I played junior. It was the perfect scenario," he said. "I think I did pretty well for my first game. The players are faster in the NHL (than in the ECHL), and there must be quite a difference in level between pre-season and regular-season games, but it's nice to know I can hold my own at this level."
Marc Denis looked sharp in goal for the Canadiens, but didn't want to overstate the importance of the game.
"A game like that is a confidence boost, but let's not get too carried away," he said. "Yes, there was the result and the performance, but I still need to perfect my technique."
Carbonneau said the team, which improved to 1-1 with the win, is starting to come together.
"Except for a 2-3 young players and one defender who didn't play (Monday) night, the guys played a little better tonight," he said. "Playing a second game in as many nights helped them get into the game a little quicker."
Plekanec put Montreal on the board at 10:25 of the first period. His goal was assisted by Andrei Kostitsyn, who scored shorthanded in the second to give the Canadiens a 2-0 lead.
Plekanec scored his second four minutes later to make it 3-0.
Buffalo crawled back in the third period with goals by Derek Roy and Nathan Gerbe, but couldn't find the equalizer and fell to 0-2 in the pre-season.
Sabres coach Lindy Ruff praised Gerbe after the game.
"He's one of the players we think could play for us down the road," Ruff said. "He's got good speed, a good shot. Pound for pound, he may be one of our strongest players. In one-on-one confrontations, he doesn't go down very often. It's not easy to play against a player like that, for the simple reason that a defenceman doesn't have leverage against him."