Price stops 31 shots as Canadiens top Leafs
MONTREAL — For a player who had just sat out two games with a virus, Alexander Radulov had plenty of energy.
The Russian winger set up linemates Paul Byron and Alex Galchenyuk each with a goal as the Montreal Canadiens ended a threegame winless run with a 2-1 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night.
Radulov was all over the ice in his return to action, picking up two assists and skating hard at both ends. He had missed games Tuesday against Florida and Friday in Carolina with an illness that he first felt during a 3-2 loss last Sunday in Chicago.
“It was bad,” said Radulov, whose 16 points in 17 games places him second to Galchenyuk in team scoring. “I had a fever.
“In Chicago, I felt it in the morning but it wasn’t that bad but it got worse overnight and I went to the hospital. But I battled through.”
Having a healthy Radulov back seemed to pick up the entire team and they needed that, as well as Carey Price’s 31 saves, in an endto-end, entertaining contest against the quick, young Maple Leafs.
The former Nashville Predator has been a pleasant surprise for Montreal since he signed a oneyear deal as a free agent in the summer after playing four seasons in the KHL.
“We’ve all been around people who have that kind of energy and it’s contagious,” Canadiens defenceman Shea Weber, not intending a pun, said of Radulov. “That be-positive attitude. Guys feed off that. It’s not an act. It’s who he is.”
As coach Michel Therrien put it: “He’s intense. He loves practice. He loves meetings. He loves the game.”
It helped Montreal (14-3-2) win a 12th straight game against its oldest rival dating to Jan. 18, 2014.
William Nylander scored for the Leafs (8-7-3), who were coming off a pair of home wins in which they scored 12 goals. They pushed hard in the third period, but couldn’t get a second goal past Price.
“We’re happy with the way we battled at the end,” said Leafs defenceman Morgan Reilly. “We were right there the whole game.
They got another good effort from goalie Frederik Andersen, who faced 29 shots and had little chance on either goal he allowed.
Byron was on the doorstep to jam the rebound of a Shea Weber shot past Andersen 15:45 into the opening period. It was the diminutive winger’s seventh of the season, only four shy of his career high for a season.
The Canadiens were only five seconds into a power play when Galchenyuk got his seventh of the season. He won a faceoff back to Weber, who slid the puck to Radulov on the right wing for a perfect feed in front for the Canadiens’ scoring leader to score into an open side at 0:32 of the second frame.
Toronto struck back on the man advantage at 8:47 on an equally sweet three-way passing play, this time in tight traffic as the puck went from Auston Matthews to Leo Komarov to Nylander alone on the right side for his sixth of the season.
“They’ve got a skilled, young team,” Weber said of the Leafs. “They’re good on the power play and they’ve got speed.
“I thought we did a good job of staying behind them and taking away that speed a bit.”
It was the second meeting this season between the rivals. The Canadiens won, also by 2-1, at home on Oct. 29. Their next two games are in Toronto on Jan. 7 and Feb. 25, 2017.
EDMONTON 5 DALLAS 2
DALLAS — Connor McDavid got his first career hat trick, helping the Edmonton Oilers beat the Dallas Stars 5-2 on Saturday night to end a five-game skid.
McDavid, the first overall pick in the 2015 draft, ended a 10-game stretch without a goal.
Tyler Pitlick got his sixth goal of the season for Edmonton, and Oscar Klebom also scored. Cam Talbot made 31 saves.
The Oilers led 4-0 early in the second period when Dallas coach Lindy Ruff swapped starting goalie Kari Lehtonen for Antti Niemi.
Patrick Eaves and Jamie Benn scored for Dallas during a fourminute power play late in the second. Eaves scored in his fifth straight game, the longest streak of his 12-year career. — CP
BUFFALO 2 PITTSBURGH 1, SO
BUFFALO, New York — Cal O’Reilly scored the lone goal in a shootout, helping Buffalo snap a six-game losing streak.
William Carrier scored his first NHL goal and Sabres goalie Anders Nilsson stopped 46 shots through overtime plus all three shootout attempts he faced.
Buffalo snapped an 0-4-2 skid and ended a nine-game slide against the Penguins. The Sabres had gone 0-8-1 versus Pittsburgh since a 4-2 road win on April 23, 2013.
Sidney Crosby scored for Pittsburgh, which has alternated losses and wins over its past five games since a 9-2-2 start.
O’Reilly’s shootout goal came after he was called up from Buffalo’s AHL affiliate in Rochester earlier in the day. — AP
FLORIDA 4 OTTAWA 1
OTTAWA — Roberto Luongo made 39 saves, Jaromir Jagr had a goal and two assists and Florida beat Ottawa. Jussi Jokinen, Jonathan Marchessault and Derek MacKenzie also scored for the Panthers.
Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored and Craig Anderson made 19 saves for the Senators. — AP