Carey Price shut out the red-hot Philadelphia Flyers to give the Montreal Canadiens a 3-0 victory on Tuesday in a battle between two of the top teams in the Eastern Conference.
In a rematch of last season’s Eastern Conference finals where the Flyers triumphed to advance to the Stanley Cup final, Price made 41 saves and the Northeast Division-leading Canadiens (12-5-1) skated to their fourth straight win.
“It’s satisfying. Our team’s playing well,” Price told reporters after recording his league lead-tying 11th win of the season. “It’s definitely nice that we’ve started getting breaks going our way.”
Photo: Reuters
Brian Gionta recorded a goal and two assists, while Michael Cammalleri and Tomas Plekanec added scores to hand visiting Philadelphia their first regulation defeat since Oct. 25.
The Flyers (12-5-2) had won nine of their previous 10 games, but could not produce an offense to support rookie goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, who finished with 25 saves.
Bobrovsky, making his 10th straight start, was beaten early when Cammalleri converted a power-play chance at 9 minutes, 36 seconds in the first period. Montreal added one score each in the final two periods to secure the win.
The Canadiens played without defenseman Andrei Markov, who the team expect to be sidelined for an indefinite period with a right knee injury.
Even without him, though, Montreal became the first team this year to shut out the high-powered Philadelphia offense.
The Flyers will get another crack at the Canadiens when the teams meet again on Monday in Philadelphia.
“We’re already pretty excited for that game,” the Flyers’ leading scorer Claude Giroux said.
Stars 2, Ducks 1
In Dallas, Brad Richards scored the go-ahead goal after a video review midway through the third period as Dallas edged Anaheim.
Richards’ shot from the left circle glanced off the post and the referees initially ruled no goal. However, replays showed the puck crossed the goal line in the air and Richards was credited with his 200th NHL goal.
The game marked the debut of Swedish referee Marcus Vinnerborg, who became the first European to work an NHL game.
Kari Lehtonen stopped 26 shots and Steve Ott added a goal for the Stars. Corey Perry scored the lone goal for the Ducks.
Maple Leafs 5, Predators 4
In Toronto, Kris Versteeg scored two goals 59 seconds apart in the second period as the Maple Leafs came back to defeat Nashville.
Nikolai Kulemin, Luke Schenn and Mikhail Grabovski also scored for the Leafs, who rebounded from a three-goal deficit to record their first win in nine games.
Toronto lost starting goaltender J.S. Giguere to an apparent groin injury early in the third period, but backup Jonas Gustavsson made six saves to secure the victory.
J.P. Dumont, Jordin Tootoo, Marin Erat and Marcel Goc scored for Nashville.
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