Field Level Media
Mar 6, 2019
Carey Price tied the Montreal Canadiens' record for all-time wins by a goaltender, and he did it dominating fashion, making 26 saves Tuesday in a 3-1 victory over the host Los Angeles Kings.
Price's 314th victory in net for the Canadiens tied him with Jacques Plante, a Hall of Famer who played at Montreal from 1952-63. Price had a shutout midway through the third period before the Kings finally broke through.
Brendan Gallagher, Shea Weber and former King Jordan Weal scored goals as the Canadiens rebounded from a 5-1 defeat to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday to win for the fifth time in their past eight games. Weal was making his debut for Montreal, his third team of the season, after he was acquired from the Arizona Coyotes last week.
The Canadiens and Penguins are tied atop the Eastern Conference wild-card standings with 79 points.
Matt Luff scored a late goal for the Kings, the last-place team in the Western Conference who lost for the 11th time in their past 12 games (1-7-4).
Los Angeles was coming off a 6-3 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks that ended a 10-game losing streak (0-6-4).
The highlight of Price's big night came with just over one minute remaining in the second period when he stopped Alex Iafallo's point-blank wrist shot and then sprawled out to prevent the rebound from trickling into the goal. Price missed practice Monday because of illness.
Gallagher's goal at 3:11 of the first period, his 30th, came off a deflection from a Victor Mete shot. Mete's low shot from near the blue line took a high rebound off Gallagher's stick and into the top of the goal past Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick.
The Canadiens made it 2-0 at 10:07 of the second period when Weal picked up a turnover by Kings defenseman Dion Phaneuf deep in the Los Angeles zone and was able to beat a surprised Quick. It was Weal's fifth of the season.
It took just 41 seconds into the third period for the Canadiens to increase their lead to 3-0 when Weber's hard one-timer from above the left circle clipped off the webbing of Quick's glove.
Luff got the Kings on the board when he beat Price from the slot at 11:03 of the third period for his eighth of the season.
The victory was just the third in the past 16 games in the state of California for the Canadiens, and the previous two came in shootouts.
--Field Level Media