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 Samuel Pahlsson added a short-handed goal 33 seconds after Kunitz's goal for the defending Stanley Cup champions, who were coming off consecutive shutout losses. Todd Marchant also scored and Jean-Sebastien Giguere made 20 saves to win for the 10th time in 12 starts after losing each of his previous five.
Alex Kovalev scored his 30th goal and Casey Price made 34 saves for the Canadiens, who are 9-17-0 with five ties against reigning NHL champions since winning their last Stanley Cup in 1993.
The victory kept Montreal a point behind New Jersey in the race for the best record in the Eastern Conference. The Canadiens will face the Devils on Tuesday night at Montreal, having won the last two meetings by one-goal margins after losing 4-0 at New Jersey on Nov. 30.
Anaheim right wing Corey Perry saw his consecutive game streak in the regular season end at 193 games because of an injury that will sideline him for about 4-6 weeks. The Ducks' leading scorer underwent surgery late Thursday night, just hours after the tendon above his right knee was lacerated by the skate of Colorado Avalanche goalie Jose Theodore.
The Ducks finished 5-0 against Northeast Division teams. All of those games were played in Anaheim. They allowed a grand total of three goals in those games
-- all of them in the first period.
Defenseman Kent Huskins helped set up the deciding goal by keeping the puck alive at the left point. He dumped it around the boards, and Ryan Getzlaf got possession behind the net before passing it between the legs of Montreal's Maxim Lapierre and right onto Kunitz's stick at the left of the crease.
Anaheim's Rob Niedermayer was sent off for boarding Josh Gorges just 14 seconds later, but it all worked out well for the Ducks as Pahlsson finished off a 2-on-1 break with Scott Niedermayer by beating Price to the glove side with a one-timer from 35 feet. It was Pahlsson's ninth career short-handed goal, and only the third allowed this season by Montreal.
Marchant opened the scoring just 21 seconds after the opening faceoff with a goal that wasn't official until after a lengthy video replay. Kovalev tied it at 8:44 of the first, reaching the 30-goal mark for the fourth time in 15 NHL seasons while referee Ian Walsh had his arm raised to call a delayed penalty against Scott Niedermayer.
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The Canadiens brought the NHL's most efficient power play into the game against an Anaheim squad that was averaging a league-worst 19.3 penalty minutes. They had four power plays, coming up empty each time. It was just the third time in 15 games that the Habs didn't get a power play goal.
The Ducks were 0-for-8 on the power play, making them 2-for-45 against Montreal in their 10 meetings since the start of the 1998-99 season.
Notes: Giguere, who was born in Montreal, is 3-2 with a tie and a 2.64 goals-against average in six career games against his hometown team. ... Habs C Tomas Plekanec missed his first game this season because of the flu. ... Anaheim RW Bobby Ryan, the second overall pick in the 2005 draft, began his third stint with the club this season after getting recalled from Portland of the AHL to replace Perry
-- whose injury leaves Kunitz, D Francois Beauchemin and D Sean O'Donnell as the only players to appear in all 71 games for the Ducks. ... The Ducks completed the Eastern Conference portion of their schedule 8-2-0.
[Associated Press; By MICHAEL MAROT]
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
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