Price is right as Canadiens blank Penguins

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH

The Montreal Canadiens didn’t take long to establish they were more ready to play than Pittsburgh.

Tomas Plekanec and Travis Moen scored in the opening minutes of the first and second periods, and Carey Price made 26 saves to blank the flat Penguins 3-0 on Saturday.

It was Price’s eighth shutout this season and 12th of his career, and he has allowed a total of seven goals in starting each of the past six games with a .965 save percentage.

“It was an Exhibit-A road game,” Price said. “We cleaned up rebounds, anything I left out there, and played excellent all-around defense.

“You could tell our guys came to the rink with a focus today, and everybody executed. I think we’re a tough team to play against when we get an early lead.”

Pittsburgh coach Dan Bylsma saw the opposite in this team.

“We weren’t really able to get into it, and that was obvious from the way we executed,” Bylsma said. “You could see that when they got a faceoff goal right away. They didn’t have to work very hard to get that.”

The first of Montreal’s quick strikes came 46 seconds into the game on Plekanec’s 21st goal, good for second on the team. Plekanec cleanly beat Pittsburgh’s Jordan Staal on the faceoff, then slipped around Staal and backhanded a pass from Cammalleri behind goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury. It looked like a set play, but Cammalleri wasn’t saying.

“We might want to use it again,” he said, grinning.

The Canadiens struck even earlier in the second period, just 24 seconds in, on Moen’s one-timer. The play began with Scott Gomez intercepting a breakout pass by Pittsburgh defenseman Kris Letang, and Brian Gionta fed Moen atop the right circle.

It was Moen’s first goal since Dec. 10, ending a 38-game drought.

Cammalleri made it 3-0 at 6:51, going down to one knee to redirect Jeff Halpern’s sharp pass by Fleury.

That was three goals in 12 shots, and Bylsma replaced Fleury with Brent Johnson, who would stop all eight shots he faced.