Saku Koivu scored a shootout goal and Carey Price stopped all three shots in the tiebreaker to give the Montreal Canadiens a 3-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday night.
Koivu beat Cam Ward with a backhand on Montreal's second attempt. Price stopped Matt Cullen, Eric Staal and Ray Whitney to seal the win.
Alex Tanguay scored on a penalty shot in the final seconds of the first period and Price stopped 31 shots for Montreal, which closed out a 4-1 homestand despite falling 6-4 to Anaheim on Saturday in the team's first regulation loss of the season.
The Canadiens' power-play unit of Alex Kovalev, Saku Koivu, Robert Lang and Andrei Markov pressed hard in overtime for the winning goal but couldn't beat Ward. He made a huge stop on Lang after Staal drew a tripping penalty 2:35 into the extra session.
Kovalev scored an unassisted goal 15:56 in to make it 1-1.
With the Canadiens working on a 5-on-3 advantage late in the period, Carolina defenseman Dennis Seidenberg closed his hand on the puck in the crease. Tanguay was awarded a penalty shot for the infraction, and he beat Ward with 10.1 seconds remaining for his sixth goal of the season to put Montreal up 2-1.
Cullen drew Carolina even with his fourth goal, scored 40 seconds into the third. Cullen put a rebound of Seidenberg's shot under Price's left pad.
Price got an automatic delay of game penalty with 2:01 remaining in the third when he played the puck aggressively and cleared it over the glass.
Anton Babchuk scored his first of the season midway through the first for Carolina, which fell to 2-2-1 on its longest road trip of the season, a six-game stretch that ends Thursday in St. Louis.
The Canadiens honored coaching legends Dick Irvin, Toe Blake and Scotty Bowman before the game as part of the team's 100th season celebrations.
Bowman, currently a senior adviser with the Chicago Blackhawks, was on hand for the ceremonial faceoff along with broadcaster Dick Irvin Jr. and Blake's son, Bruce.
Andrei Kostitsyn returned to Montreal's lineup after missing two games because of a concussion.
Rookie center Brandon Sutter and defenseman Joni Pitkanen were both out of the Hurricanes' lineup because of injuries sustained Saturday in a 4-3 road win against the New York Islanders.
Sutter is out indefinitely with a concussion from an open-ice hit by the Islanders' Doug Weight. Pitkanen torn the meniscus in his knee and is expected to be sidelined for a month.
Babchuk's shot from the right point off a faceoff in the Canadiens' zone struck Koivu's stick and deflected past Price for a power-play goal 11:04 in.
Notes:@ The Hurricanes had won nine straight in Montreal — including three playoff victory in 2006 — since the lockout that canceled the 2004-05 season. ... Irvin, Blake and Bowman coached the Canadiens to a total of 16 Stanley Cup championships between 1940 and 1979. ... D Patrice Brisebois, RW Georges Laraque and LW Steve Begin were healthy scratches for Montreal.
Copyright 2008 AP News
