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Koivu, Price continue Canadiens' mastery of Bruins

Mar 23, 2008 - 3:59 AM MONTREAL (Ticker) -- Captain Saku Koivu scored the lone goal of the shootout in the third round and rookie Carey Price stopped all three shooters he faced as the Montreal Canadiens posted their 11th consecutive victory over the Boston Bruins, a 3-2 triumph on Saturday.

All-Star defenseman Andrei Markov and Andrei Kostitsyn scored in regulation for Montreal (42-24-10), which improved to 23-4-0 against its "Original Six" rivals in the last 27 meetings and remained one point ahead of Pittsburgh (43-25-7) for first place in the Eastern Conference.

"It's nice," Canadiens coach Guy Carbonneau said. "If we miss the playoffs now, it would take a total disaster."

All-Star Marc Savard and Petteri Nokelainen tallied for Boston (37-28-10), which fell to 2-5-4 in its last 11 games but pulled even in points with idle Philadelphia (37-28-10) for seventh place in the East. The Bruins did increase their advantage to two points over the idle ninth-place Washington Capitals (37-31-8).

"I thought that we played hard tonight. It was a big effort from the guys," Boston defenseman Shane Hnidy said. "It was a step in the right direction. We have to bring it. That's the type of hockey it is for us - desperate. It's a playoff atmosphere, and you have to fight and claw for the points."

Koivu recorded the lone tally in the bonus format, putting a backhander between the pads of All-Star netminder Tim Thomas, who had denied defenseman Mark Streit and Alexei Kovalev with pad saves.

"I've tried (that move) a few times and it worked tonight," Koivu said. "Last time (in Tuesday's 4-3 loss against St. Louis), I had it, but it hit the post. Today, I think I got the bounce there. We'll take that one and take a huge two points."

Price stopped defensemen Zdeno Chara and Dennis Wideman with pad saves, while Phil Kessel's attempt in the second round deflected off the crossbar.

"We need to get every point we can. Even though we knew we had one point going into the shootout, we knew we had to get the other one," Price said. "Those are the points we're going to need when we come down to the last few games."

Markov opened the scoring just 2:20 into the first period, when he blasted a slap shot from the left faceoff circle past Thomas - who inadvertently was screened by rookie teammate Milan Lucic - for his 15th goal of the season.

After Savard leveled the contest over six minutes later with a wraparound for his 15th tally of the campaign and first in 16 games, Kostitsyn reclaimed the lead for the Canadiens just 73 seconds later.

The Russian gathered the rebound of Streit's shot and beat Thomas for his 23rd goal.

Nokelainen evened it at 2-2 midway through the second period, deflecting a centering feed past Price for his seventh of the campaign.

"That game shows that we can hang with these guys," Thomas said. "I thought we were going to get over the hump tonight. It kind of just felt that way.

"It's tough (to lose) in a shootout. You win and you feel like you're on top of the world. (You) lose and you can get too down, but in this case, we'll take any point we can."

For Boston coach Claude Julien, it was a case of more of the same.

"Unfortunately at this time of the year, we need two points - that's part of the disappointing part of it," Julien said. "It's kind of like a broken record. We have a hard time finishing and scoring goals, and that always seems to come back and bite us in the end.

"Somewhere down the road, we're going to have to find a way to put those pucks in. With a bit of a break, we hoped that Kessel's puck (in the shootout) would have gone in. But it is what it is, and we just have to move on here."