Carey Price on Thursday reached another milestone, as the Montreal Canadiens got another big win.
Price stopped 36 shots in his 300th career win, leading the Canadiens to a 2-1 victory over the slumping Arizona Coyotes.
Paul Byron and Shea Weber scored as Montreal won the second game of a back-to-back for the first time in four tries this season.
Photo: Stephen R Sylvanie, USA Today
“Definitely a trying two games with the travel involved, but we found a way to do it. Great character showed up tonight,” Price said.
Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored for the Coyotes, who have just two goals in the past three games and have lost seven of eight. Darcy Kuemper stopped 26 shots.
“We’re close, but we don’t get points being close,” Ekman-Larsson said. “We’re trying to get back in the race and we’re trying to find our game right now.”
It was the first meeting between the teams since their off-season trade that sent Max Domi to Montreal and Alex Galchenyuk to Arizona.
“That was fun. So many memories here,” Domi said. “It was like, emotional. I was only here for three years, but it felt like 20.”
Ekman-Larrson now has 13 points in 13 career games against the Canadiens, and his 47 power-play goals since 2013 are most among NHL defensemen.
The Coyotes got close to taking the lead, but Price had a number of quick-reflex stops. One of those came off his left-leg pad without him seeing the puck.
“Carey Price is world-class,” Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet said. “I thought we missed the net a couple of times when we had people in front.”
GOLDEN KNIGHTS 4, ISLANDERS 2
In four games back after missing 30 with an injury, Paul Stastny has made his presence known for the Vegas Golden Knights.
William Karlsson and Stastny scored 1 minute, 3 seconds apart in the third period, and Marc-Andre Fleury got his 424th career win as Vegas rallied for a 4-2 win over the New York Islanders.
It marked the Golden Knights’ sixth straight win at home.
Just more than a minute after Karlsson skated down the left wing and fired one over Thomas Greiss’ shoulder for his team-leading 14th goal at 6 minute, 22 seconds to tie the score at two-all, Reilly Smith fed Stastny, who put it in the open net with his second goal of the season to put Vegas ahead 3-2.
“He’s easy to play with, he holds on to the puck, buys you that extra second to get open,” said Stastny, who has had two goals and an assist in the past three games. “When you play with good players it doesn’t matter. I think a good coach will do a good job of switching two guys that will give a spark to two lines.”
Defenseman Nate Schmidt had an empty-net goal and two assists, and Brandon Pirri scored as Vegas came back from two goals down near the midpoint of the second period.
Fleury, who made 19 saves, picked up his league-leading 20th win of the season. He also broke a tie with Tony Esposito to take sole possession of ninth place on the career list, moving 13 victories behind Jacques Plante (437).
“The second period we knew they were going to have a push,” Islanders coach Barry Trotz said. “I would say we weren’t as committed as we were in the first, and their commitment level got raised.”
Mathew Barzal and Brock Nelson each scored for New York, while Greiss stopped 43 shots.
The Golden Knights, who completed a season series sweep of the Islanders after losing both matchups last year, are 6-3-1 this month and hold the top wild-card spot in the Western Conference with 42 points.
“I liked our game; we kind of fell asleep for a minute and a half late in the first period and it cost us two goals, and we were disappointed with that,” Gallant said. “But I thought overall we played a real good solid game and lots of scoring opportunities. The second period was real good for us.”
Elsewhere on Thursday, it was:
‧ Blue Jackets 2, Devils 1
‧ Maple Leafs 6, Panthers 1
‧ Penguins 2, Wild 1
‧ Blackhawks 5, Stars 2
‧ Flyers 2, Predators 1
‧ Red Wings 4, Hurricanes 1
‧ Bruins 3, Ducks 1
‧ Lightning 5, Flames 4
‧ Canucks 5, Blues 1
‧ Jets 5, Sharks 3
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