PRICE WINS GOALIE DUEL
Galchenyuk nets OT winner
The bottom line: A couple of former Vézina Trophy winners grabbed the spotlight at the Bell Centre Tuesday night as the Canadiens edged the Columbus Blue Jackets 1-0 on a power-play goal by Alex Galchenyuk at 3:53 of overtime. Sergei Bobrovsky, the 2013 Vézina winner and a candidate for this year’s honours, made 29 saves. Carey Price, who was honoured as the top goaltender in 2015, was perfect as he stopped 26 shots.
It was the third and final game in the season series between these teams and the Blue Jackets won the two previous games 10-0 and 2-1.
Hometown blues: The Canadiens haven’t offered their fans much in the way of entertainment — or wins — in recent weeks. The win snapped the Canadiens’ home winless streak at five games (0-41). And they had scored only five goals in those games.
With the win, Montreal is six points ahead of the Boston Bruins, who beat Arizona 4-1 Tuesday, and the idle Ottawa Senators. Ottawa holds three games in hand.
Prelude to a trade?: David Desharnais was a healthy scratch and he was an Edmonton Oiler by the time the second period started. The Canadiens traded Desharnais for depth defenceman Brandon Davidson. Montreal will retain 20 per cent of Desharnais’s $3.5-million salary, but this will still free up $2.8 million in cap space if Davidson and his $585,000 cap hit are sent to St. John’s. Davidson has played 91 NHL games and has five goals and eight assists. He has one assist in 28 appearances this season.
Getting to be a habit: The Canadiens thought they had the first goal of the game at 6:24 of the first period when Alex Radulov banked a puck off Seth Jones’s leg during a goalmouth scramble, but referee Marc Joannette waved it off, ruling that a whistle had stopped play. It was the third consecutive Montreal “goal” to be disallowed at the Bell Centre. Video replays cancelled two goals in a Feb. 23 loss to the Islanders. It became four when Max Pacioretty’s breakaway “goal” in overtime was disallowed. Power outage: The Canadiens came out flying on their first power play of the game, testing Bobrovsky with six shots on goal. The Canadiens didn’t fare so well on their next two power plays, one later in the first period and one to start the third period. They failed to get a shot on either advantage.
Coming attractions: It will be P.K. Subban Night at the Bell Centre Thursday as the popular defenceman returns with the Nashville Predators (7:30 p.m., Sportsnet, RDS, TSN-690 Radio). It will be his first game against the Canadiens since he was traded for Shea Weber last summer. The Canadiens are in New York Saturday night to begin a four-game road trip that takes them to Western Canada next week.