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Price helps Canadiens open homestand with win

Nov 30, 2008 - 4:56 AM MONTREAL (Ticker) -- Carey Price helped make sure the Montreal Canadiens opened a key early-season homestand in winning fashion.

Price made 26 saves and three different players scored second-period goals as the Canadiens defeated the Buffalo Sabres, 3-2, on Saturday.

Andrei Kostitsyn, Steve Begin and defenseman Andrei Markov each beat Buffalo goaltender Patrick Lalime in the second session as the Canadiens opened a seven-game homestand with their first home win in four tries.

"If you look at the last six or seven games, I feel we played really well defensively," Montreal coach Guy Carbonneau said. "Overall we haven't had the chance to play with the lead. It comes down to 1-0, and then a bad bounce and it's 2-0, it's hard but I thought tonight there was a positive attitude on the bench."

Thomas Vanek scored both goals and Lalime finished with 31 saves for Buffalo, which dropped its fourth straight road game.

Montreal, which entered the contest 0-1-2 in its previous three games, used a big middle session to get its season-long stretch of home games off to a good start.

"Tonight we played with intensity and the attitude we needed, there was a mistake in the first period but over three periods we played solid hockey," Carbonneau said.

Vanek's second goal of the game put Buffalo ahead, 2-1, just 7:39 into the period, but Montreal responded with two goals in a five-minute span to provide the final margin.

"I thought we did some good things in the second period," Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff said. "We had some good looks at the net but we didn't get the bounces we wanted, but then our coverage coming back wasn't good enough, that hurt us."

Maxim Lapierre fed Begin from the left faceoff circle and the left wing slid his shot just under Lalime's left pad to level the contest with 6:20 remaining in the session.

While each team had a man in the box on hooking minors, Montreal took advantage of the open ice for the go-ahead tally. Captain Saku Koivu fed a tape-to-tape pass to Markov, who snapped a shot that found the top right corner, giving Montreal its first lead of the game with 90 seconds remaining in the second.

"I got a jump on the play and Saku made a great pass and I just put my stick on the ice," Markov said.

Lalime fell to 1-4-1 on the season while getting the start in place of Ryan Miller. The Sabres killed a two-minute two-man advantage early in the third to keep the game at 3-2, but Price kept them off the board with eight saves in the period.

"He (Patrick Lalime) made some good saves, Patty gave us a good game," Ruff said. "We killed off that 5-on-3 and had some good opportunities late, but we gave them chances in the second that gave them life."

Vanek staked Buffalo to a 1-0 lead with 6:29 remaining in the first period, but Kostitsyn pulled Montreal even with his fourth goal of the season just 2:51 into the second.