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Tanguay, Price power Canadiens past Bruins

Oct 16, 2008 - 4:04 AM MONTREAL (Ticker) -- Alex Tanguay scored in the second round of the shootout and Carey Price stopped all three attempts he faced in the bonus format as the Montreal Canadiens rebounded after squandering a three-goal lead to record a 4-3 triumph over the Boston Bruins on Wednesday.

Alexei Kovalev, captain Saku Koivu and Maxim Lapierre tallied in a span of 3 minutes, 19 seconds in the opening session for Montreal, which won all eight of its regular-season meetings with its "Original" Six rival in 2007-08 - outscoring Boston, 38-16, in the process.

"For us to be successful, we have to be playing with the puck, we have to be skating, and I think we didn't skate as well as we could have in the last two periods," Tanguay said. "But I guess we have to win the ugly ones, too, and we'll take that one."

Defenseman Andrei Markov recorded two assists and Price finished with 31 saves as the Canadiens improved to 56-27-15-1 in home openers - and 8-1-2 all-time against the Bruins in such contests.

Marc Savard scored twice and David Krejci also tallied for Boston, which was eliminated in seven games by the top-seeded Canadiens in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals last season.

After Tanguay wristed a shot that sailed past goaltender Tim Thomas and just inside the right goalpost, Price made it stand by thwarting former Canadien Michael Ryder on the final attempt.

"Well, the fans gave me a pretty good boost," Tanguay said. "With Carey making the first two saves and the fans starting to get excited a little bit. ... I don't know, (Thomas) is a pretty good goalie, he moves well laterally, and he went down and I found a way to put it over his shoulder."

"(Ryder's) a good friend of ours, but on the ice, there's no friends out there," said Price, who also stopped Phil Kessel and Patrice Bergeron in the shootout. "You know, he's a pretty good shooter, he had quite a few shots tonight."

The Bruins tied the contest at 3-3 with 58 seconds left in regulation thanks to a quirky bounce off the home team's end boards.

Ryder dumped the puck into the zone and, as Price went to gain possession, it bounded off the end boards and right to the waiting stick of Savard, who promptly tapped it into the net for his NHL-leading fifth goal of the season. St. Louis veteran Keith Tkachuk has four tallies on the young season.

"I was trying to jump in there, and it took that hop and it was tough because I had to wait for it to kind of come down," Savard said. "I was able to bat it right on the line on the ice. It was a good break."

Kovalev opened the scoring with 4:54 remaining in the first period.

Just 15 seconds into a power-play opportunity, Kovalev fed Tomas Plekanec below the end line and skated toward the net. Plekanec attempted to return the favor, but the puck caromed off both the Russian's skate and Thomas' pads.

Kovalev neatly slipped the puck past the netminder and inside the right goalpost for his second goal of the season.

Koivu doubled the advantage just 92 seconds later, gathering the rebound of a shot by Guillaume Latendresse and one-timing it past Thomas for his first tally.

Lapierre increased the lead with shorthander just 1:47 later, when he collected the puck after it deflected off Thomas' left skate and deposited it past the prone goalie.

"We just said before the game to try to put pressure on them, and that's what happened," Lapierre said. "We used our speed and just put the puck at the net, and I got it in the net."

Although his team was outshot, 8-1, to start the second period, Krejci got the Bruins on the scoreboard 7:15 into the session.

After blue-liner Andrew Ference's blast from the right faceoff circle was denied by Price, Montreal defenseman Josh Gorges attempted to clear the puck. Krejci intercepted it in the high slot and unleashed a shot that glanced off the crossbar and into the net for his second goal of the campaign.

With his team's 5-on-3 power play about to be reduced to a one-man advantage, Savard halved the deficit 7:12 in the the third period by banging home a rebound just as Andrei Kostitsyn exited the penalty box.

"You can't make mistakes like we did in the first period and expect to win hockey games," Boston coach Claude Julien said. "We had to get better from goaltending out, big saves, smarter plays and everybody has to take responsibility.

"I thought we did that in the second and third periods against a pretty good hockey club. To battle back from a 3-0 deficit, you have to give the players credit."