Montreal on a roll with Julien
NEW YORK — Carey Price and the Montreal Canadiens showed off their resurgent form under coach Claude Julien with a big Eastern Conference win.
Price made 26 saves and the Canadiens extended their winning streak to five games with a 4-1 victory over the New York Rangers on Saturday.
Shea Weber, Artturi Lehkonen, Andrew Shaw and Saanich product Jordie Benn scored for the Canadiens, who are in first place in the Atlantic Division.
Max Pacioretty and Alex Galchenyuk each had two assists for Montreal, which has won six of seven.
The streak started with a shootout win over the Rangers on Feb. 21 at Madison Square Garden. That was Montreal’s first win under Julien, who took over after Michel Therrien was fired.
“It’s a matter of better execution and managing the puck a little bit better and creating a little bit more offence,” Julien said. “I thought we moved the puck fairly well tonight.”
The Canadiens swept all three meetings with the Rangers this season, and the teams could meet in the first round of the playoffs next month.
“We get excited playing here at MSG,” Galchenyuk said. “They’re a very strong team and there’s been a lot of talk about meeting in the first round. We wanted to come in here and play a strong game, and we did.”
Chris Kreider scored and Henrik Lundqvist made 31 saves for the Rangers, who have lost three of their past four overall and four in a row at home.
“Right now we’ve got quite a few guys that are fighting it; there’s no doubt,” Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said.
“A couple of guys’ games are not very good, but that’s still not a reason to execute to the level that we did tonight.”
DALLAS 2 FLORIDA 1
SUNRISE, Florida — The Dallas Stars finally won one on the road.
John Klingberg scored the winning goal with 1:07 left and the Stars beat the Florida Panthers 2-1 on Saturday.
The Stars won for the fourth time in six games and snapped a six-game road losing streak. Their last road win had been on Jan. 17, 7-6 at the New York Rangers.
Tyler Seguin passed from the boards on the left side across to Klingberg in the right circle. Klingberg’s shot went off the skate of Florida’s Jussi Jokinen and high into the net over the shoulder of James Reimer.
“I had time to aim and shoot and pick the spot,” Klingberg said.
“I was going for the left side there and maybe I got a little bit lucky at hitting the top of the skate of [Jokinen].”
Kari Lehtonen made a seasonhigh 41 saves.
“There was lots of action. That’s nice. It kept me going the whole time,” Lehtonen said.
“I don’t think we’re thinking too much about our record or how we’ve played lately on the road. We just come here and compete and work hard for each other. Tonight, it worked.”
Saanich’s Jamie Benn also scored a goal and had an assist for Dallas. Seguin had two assists.
“We did enough to find a way to win,” Benn said.
“That’s all that really matters when you’re playing on the road against a good team fighting for a playoff lives, too.”
Jonathan Huberdeau scored the Panthers’ goal. Reimer made 32 saves for Florida, which has lost five of its past six.