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 Price stopped all 38 shots he faced, and nine Canadiens collected a
point, lifting Montreal to a 3-0 win over the St. Louis Blues on
Tuesday night at the Bell Centre.
Left winger Max Pacioretty, right winger Alexander Semin and center
Torrey Mitchell scored for the Canadiens, who improved to 7-0-0.
"This is the best team we've played against," Blues coach Ken
Hitchcock said. "This is the best checking team we've played
against. They use their fourth line, an experienced group of
players, to check our top players, and they did a hell of a job.
"This is a well-coached, disciplined, play-the-game-the-right-way
team. They're going to be a bear all year for everybody."
Goaltender Jake Allen made 33 saves for St. Louis (5-2-0).
Trailing only Montreal in the NHL standings entering the game, the
Blues took it to the home team in the opening period, outshooting
the Canadiens 17-11. However, for the sixth time in seven games this
season, the Canadiens got on the board first.
Right winger Brendan Gallagher came out with the puck along the left
wall and dished off to center Tomas Plekanec inside the blue line.
Plekanec skated to the top of the right circle and banked the puck
in off Pacioretty, battling with defenseman Alex Pietrangelo in
front of Allen, at 18:27.
"The first period was a bit of a wake-up call," Mitchell said. "They
were ready to play. We have to be ready for that every time a team
comes in here because we have a target on our back with our record.
We have to be better in the first period."
Montreal doubled its lead at 4:52 of the second. Canadiens center
Alex Galchenyuk showed patience between the blue line and circles
before dishing off to Alexander Semin.
Semin, with his back to the goal, spun around and fired a wrister
from outside the right circle for his first goal of the season.
The Blues thought they cut the deficit in half a few minutes later
on the power play when defenseman Jay Bouwmeester sent the puck in
from the neutral zone. Price left his net to play it from the back
boards, only to see the puck wind up in the net.
The goal was immediately waved off, with the referee noting the puck
hit the curved stanchion at the end of the St. Louis bench, ending
the play.
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"We had a pretty good start, a bunch of shots, a bunch of chances,"
Bouwmeester said. "Then they get a pretty lucky bounce on the first
one, the second one was just a shot through traffic, and then we
couldn't score. At times we played well, got a lot of shots but just
couldn't get it done."
Mitchell made it 3-0 at 11:53 of the third period. With the faceoff
in the Blues' end following an icing call, Mitchell won the draw.
Right winger Devante Smith-Pelly got the puck over to defenseman
P.K. Subban at the point, and the Montreal blue-liner fired a shot
that turned into a juicy rebound in the slot, and Mitchell was there
to pounce.
"We've been talking about it since the start of the year," Gallagher
said. "We feel like we come out in the third period energized
because we roll four lines, and the depth of our team. Line after
line comes up, and we're a little bit fresher in the third period.
We felt good. We felt that if we continued to stay on them, pressure
them into mistakes, we'd be able to take some chances."
NOTES: St. Louis C Paul Stastny missed his second consecutive game
with a lower-body injury. C Robby Fabbri (concussion) and D Kevin
Shattenkirk (lower body) were sidelined for a fifth and fourth game,
respectively. ... Blues D Chris Butler was a healthy scratch. ...
Montreal used the same lineup for the seventh game in a row,
scratching LW Paul Byron, D Greg Pateryn and D Jarred Tinordi. ...
Canadiens C Alex Galchenyuk suited up for his 200th NHL game. ...
Montreal D Andrei Markov appeared in his 853rd NHL game, tying
Jacques Lemaire for 15th on the team's career list. ... St. Louis G
Jake Allen spent nearly two years of his junior career playing in
Montreal with the QMJHL's Juniors.
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