NHL Update: Montreal Canadiens nipped New York Rangers, 2-0
Carey Price registered his fifth shutout of the season with 35 saves to lift Montreal Canadiens to a 2-0 victory over New York Rangers, at Bell Centre on Saturday night.
“It felt like a long time but wins are coming so these are secondary,” said Price. “It seemed like today it was almost necessary. Our guys played really well defensively. "
Scott Gomez and Tomas Plekanec provided offense for Montreal, which has won three consecutive games. Alexandre Picard had an assist in the win.
Martin Biron gave up just one goal on 28 shots for New York, which has lost four consecutive contests.
"We're battling but with no result. It's a hard one to take, but it's been like that for the last couple of weeks," Biron said. "We're right there, played pretty good and had some momentum
but it's not good enough."
Rangers had a chance to get on the board with 2 ½ minutes left in the middle period, but they had misfired on their fourth straight power play.
“Our penalty killing was good, a lot of our game was good—our power play was a bit of a letdown,” Rangers coach John Tortorella said. “That’s where you’re looking at your 0-0, 1-0, whatever
it may be. You need your power play to kick in.”
Canadiens broke a goalless deadlock for 1-0 lead with 1 ½ minutes remaining in the middle stanza. The play was set up by Picard, who received Yannick Weber’s pass inside the blue line and
released a slap shot to the left of the net, from where Hal Gill's point shot sailed wide of the net.
“He had a clear lane to shoot it right on the net. As soon as he shot it wide I knew that this was a set play,” Biron said.
Gomez had positioned himself at the right post. He grabbed the rebound off the end boards, moved the puck to his forehand and fired a rising shot into the top of the net.
"Thank God I closed my eyes and just threw it up under the bar," Gomez said of his goal. "It's a drill that we work on every morning, so I guess we'll keep going with it."
Biron was pulled for an extra attacker with nearly one minute left in the final period, and Plekanec wrapped up the victory at 2-0 with an empty netter with 37 seconds showing to ice the
game.
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