Michael Bournival scored his first two goals of the season, while Carey Price made 22 saves as the Montreal Canadiens extended their winning streak to five games with a 4-2 victory over the New Jersey Devils in the NHL on Friday.
Price got his 200th victory in his 400th game as Montreal won for the eighth time in the past nine games to grab a share of the lead in the Atlantic Division with Tampa Bay on 52 points. Max Pacioretty and Tomas Plekanec also scored for the Canadiens, while P.K. Subban had three assists.
The Devils are headed in the opposite direction, with only two wins in their past 12 games. Michael Ryder got a goal in his return after missing three games with the mumps.
Photo: AFP
In other games, Pittsburgh won at home against Tampa Bay 6-3, Roberto Luongo got his 68th career shutout to lead Florida past Buffalo 2-0 and NHL-leading Anaheim hung on for a 4-3 win over slumping St Louis.
Pittsburgh’s Steve Downie scored twice after missing five games with the mumps as the Penguins used a three-goal, first-period lead to defeat the Lightning.
Chris Kunitz scored a power-play goal, his 12th of the year, and Sidney Crosby added four assists for the Penguins, who bolstered their depth at forward earlier in the day by acquiring left wing David Perron from the Edmonton Oilers.
Photo: USA Today
Luongo had 30 saves to move into sole possession of 13th on the NHL’s career shutout list. He now has shutouts in his past three starts against Buffalo.
Brad Boyes and Nick Bjugstad scored for Florida, who won for the first time in three games.
In Anaheim, California, Matt Beleskey scored the tiebreaking goal midway through the third period and Sami Vatanen had two assists for the Ducks.
After St Louis rallied three times to erase one-goal Ducks leads in the first two periods, Beleskey beat Martin Brodeur with a vicious wrist shot for his 16th goal with 9 minutes, 5 seconds to play. The Ducks got their ninth consecutive home victory over St Louis, a run dating back to October 2009.
Ryan Getzlaf, Kyle Palmieri and Andrew Cogliano also scored for the Ducks, who are 2-1 on their eight-game homestand.
Elsewhere, Carolina’s Brad Malone scored his first goal of the season, while Eric Staal got his 10th as the Hurricanes topped the Philadelphia Flyers 2-1. Cam Ward made 20 saves for the Hurricanes, who won for only the third time in a month.
Minnesota got 34 saves from Darcy Kuemper to beat the short-handed Toronto Maple Leafs 3-1. Toronto played without forwards Joffrey Lupul, Peter Holland and Nazem Kadri, who were hurt in a win over Boston on Wednesday.
John Tavares scored twice to lead the New York Islanders to their third straight victory, a 2-1 decision over Calgary. New York improved to 7-1-1 in their past nine games and kept pace with Pittsburgh atop the Metropolitan Division.
Colorado’s Alex Tanguay and Matt Duchene each scored shootout goals as the Avalanche beat the Edmonton Oilers 2-1.
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