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Habs silence 'Canes, move to top of East

Mar 20, 2015 - 5:47 AM Montreal, QC (SportsNetwork.com) - Carey Price made 31 saves for his eighth shutout of the season, and the Montreal Canadiens took over first place in the Eastern Conference with a 4-0 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday night.

Price, who turned aside 16 shots in the third period, leads the NHL with a career-high 39 wins.

Max Pacioretty and Dale Weise each had a goal and one assist as the Canadiens snapped a two-game home losing streak.

"We had a good start to the game and imposed our rhythm," Montreal coach Michel Therrien said.

Anton Khudobin stopped 18 shots for the Hurricanes, who have lost seven of their last nine games.

"We didn't have enough quality chances throughout the night," Carolina coach Bill Peters said.

The Canadiens jumped out to a 1-0 lead when Brandon Prust sent a pass out front from behind the net and Weise buried the rebound of a Manny Malhotra shot past Khudobin 5:51 into the game.

Khudobin didn't get much help from his defense on the second Montreal goal. He stopped the first shot by Tomas Plekanec on the rush and the rebound, but couldn't deny Brendan Gallagher, who scored on a backhander at 8:42 of the first period.

Tom Gilbert found David Desharnais for a tap-in just outside the crease on a delayed penalty to make it 3-0 with 1:12 remaining in the second period.

Pacioretty banked the puck in off Khudobin with 5:14 left in the third.

Game Notes

Montreal has won 13 of 17 in the series, including five straight by an 18-3 margin ... Plekanec had two assists ... Carolina defenseman Danny Biega, a Montreal native, made his NHL debut.