Price, Canadiens continue mastery of Rangers
NEW YORK -- Carey Price continued his mastery over the New York Rangers on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden, making 26 saves and leading the Montreal Canadiens to a 4-1 victory in the opener of their four-game road trip.
Price is 15-5-1 in 22 career appearances against the Rangers. Only a Chris Kreider goal early in the third period stood between Price and his eighth career shutout against New York.
The Canadiens (37-21-8), who received two points apiece from Max Pacioretty and Alex Galchenyuk, won their fifth straight game and swept the three-game season series from the Rangers (41-22-2).
Henrik Lundqvist made 31 saves for New York, which lost three of its last four games.
Montreal opened the scoring when defenseman Shea Weber was credited with his 15th goal at 12:51 of the first after he flipped a right wing shot toward the net and had it carom off Rangers defenseman Adam Clendening and over the goal line.
Artturi Lehkonen made it 2-0 at 8:48 of the second period, scoring his 12th goal of the season, and first in 18 games. Andrew Shaw's 10th goal, with 1:23 remaining in the period, provided the Canadiens a 3-0 advantage heading into the second intermission. Shaw's wrap-around score caught Lundqvist by surprise.
Price did his part with a splendid arm save to deny Kevin Hayes off a two-on-one rush midway through the second, and caught a break when New York's Brandon Pirri whiffed on a shot attempt five feet from a wide-open net earlier in the same period.
NOTES: Canadiens C Steve Ott, acquired earlier in the week from the Detroit Red Wings, played in his first game for Montreal and earned an assist on Shea Weber's game-opening goal. ... Another newcomer, D Jordie Benn, scored a third-period goal, his first with the Canadiens. ... Montreal D Jeff Petry spent 10 minutes in the dressing room in the first period after suffering a facial cut on an unpenalized high stick from Rangers RW Pavel Buchnevich. ... Montreal scratched RW Alexander Radulov, C Brian Flynn, RW Michael McCarron, D Brandon Davidson, and D Nikita Nestorov. ... The Rangers scratched RW Michael Grabner (hip) and D Kevin Klein (back).