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Koivu, Price carry Canadiens past Hurricanes

Oct 29, 2008 - 5:05 AM MONTREAL (Ticker) -- The Montreal Canadiens finally protected home ice against some pesky visitors from North Carolina.

Captain Saku Koivu scored in the second round of the shootout and Carey Price made 31 saves as the Canadiens posted a 3-2 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday.

Alex Tanguay and Alexei Kovalev each tallied for Montreal, which beat Carolina for the first time in 10 tries here. Montreal had been 0-9-0 at the Bell Centre against Carolina since the start of the 2005 season.

"We've had some problems against that team, so we'll take these two points," Koivu said.

Defenseman Anton Babchuk and Matt Cullen scored for Carolina, which fell to 2-1-2 on its six-game road trip.

"It's disappointing," Hurricanes coach Peter Laviolette said of the shootout loss.

"You come back in the third period, you're down 2-1 and tie it up and it goes to a shootout. I'm in favor of the shootout, but it just leaves you with a pit in your stomach, like you did something wrong out there."

The Hurricanes were denied another road win in Montreal when Koivu beat Cam Ward between the pads with a backhand shot, and Price gloved Ray Whitney's wrist shot.

Prior to Koivu's shot, Price also denied Eric Staal with a blocker save.

"I felt I was right there with him (Koivu) and he just made a nice backhander between my legs," Ward said of the decisive goal. "You do the best that you can, it's a flip of the coin and can go either way."

The Canadiens nearly ended it in overtime, as they had several good shots while on a power play in the final minute. However, Ward kept his team in the game by making six saves. Ward, who had been 7-0-0 here, stopped 23 shots.

"Five-on-five, I thought we played pretty solid, very solid actually," Ward said. "And then we got into a bit of penalty trouble, and when you do that against the Canadiens, they've got very skilled players who can find seams, even if it's a little bit of a seam."

Carolina tied it at 2-2 just 40 seconds into the third period.

Defenseman Dennis Seidenberg fired a wrist shot from the right point which was denied by Price, but Cullen tapped a rebound under the netminder's left blocker for his fourth goal of the season.

"It kind of popped out of my glove and went to the side of the net," Price said. I thought it was going to get chopped away, but it ended up getting chopped toward the net - and I was in the middle of getting up, and it popped through my legs and I couldn't get back down again.

"After that one, I had to step it up and make a few saves for the team. Then Saku made a great move and put one in, and that was all that we needed."

Montreal took a 2-1 lead with 11 seconds in the first period. Seidenberg closed his hand on the puck in the crease, resulting in a penalty shot. Tanguay then beat Ward with a wrist shot to the left side for his sixth goal of the season.

"You know your teammates are playing desperate and trying the best that they can to help you out, and it was just unfortunate that one of our guys put his hand on the puck," Ward said.

Despite the loss, Laviolette was pleased with the effort.

"I liked the way we played from start to finish," he said. "We battled and battled a lot. It's a lot of fun playing in Montreal, but it's never easy."