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Price, Canadiens blank Devils

Mar 12, 2008 - 3:39 AM MONTREAL (Ticker) -- Rookie Carey Price recorded his second shutout in 11 games by stopping all 38 shots he faced as the Montreal Canadiens skated to a 4-0 triumph over the New Jersey Devils in a battle of the Eastern Conference's elite teams on Tuesday.

Maxim Lapierre had a goal and an assist and Bryan Smolinski, captain Saku Koivu and Michael Ryder also scored for Montreal (39-23-9), which improved to 10-4-0 in its last 14 games and moved one point ahead of New Jersey (40-24-6) for first place in the conference.

"Everyone contributed, all the lines, and Carey was great," Smolinski said. "(The Devils) are a great team and they aren't going to go away, but we got the better of them tonight."

The Devils saw their three-game winning streak come to an end.

"It was such a big game tonight, being ahead of them by one point and also having a game in hand. It's a tough one to let slip away," New Jersey's Zach Parise said. "It was a good opportunity for us to get a little room, but to come in and lose 4-0 was not what we had in mind."

Smolinski opened the scoring just 4:51 into the first period, accepting a drop pass from Tom Kostopoulos before blasting a shot from the right faceoff circle past screened goaltender Martin Brodeur for his sixth goal of the season.

"It was a great play by our line, just getting a rush out there," Smolinski said. "T.K. made a good play to get it back to me. If you throw it at the net, things happen."

That was all the offense needed by Price, who improved to 5-2-0 since becoming Montreal's No. 1 netminder after Cristobal Huet was sent to the Washington Capitals at the NHL's trade deadline on February 26. Price silenced the Devils by stopping 20 shots in the first period, 13 in the second and five in the third for his second shutout of the campaign.

"The win was really important," Price said. "Shutout aside, we definitely needed the two points and we're happy to be in first place. But it's going to be up and down the rest of the year. We'll be fighting hard for first place every time we play."

Price admitted the vocal support of the Montreal faithful also played a significant role in his performance.

"It's tough not to be ready for the next shot when you hear that," Price said of the crowd constantly chanting his name. "It definitely motivated me."

Koivu doubled the Canadiens' advantage with 92 seconds remaining in the first period, when he finished a brilliant give-and-go with rookie Sergei Kostitsyn by wristing a shot from the slot past Brodeur for his 15th tally.

"It was an important game tonight," Kostitsyn said. "It was for first place and everyone came focused."

Lapierre gave Montreal a three-goal cushion with 5:40 remaining in the second period. Kostitsyn showed great patience after skating into the offensive zone before feeding Lapierre, who slapped the puck in from the doorstep.

Ryder capped the scoring with 2:21 remaining the third period, gathering a rebound on the doorstep and depositing it into the net for his 13th goal.

"It's disappointing, but it's disappointing because of the way we played," said Brodeur, a Montreal native who finished with 29 saves. "We did have a lot of shots, but it doesn't say what exactly happened in the game.

"The mistakes that we made were key for them to get some opportunities, and then they would bury them. We had some chances with a couple of power plays in the first and early in the second, but nothing was created. From there, they capitalized on a bad change we made and the game was over."