Stars Lose In Montreal

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MONTREAL — The Montreal Canadiens made it difficult for the Dallas Stars to get their shots through on Carey Price, who stopped all but one of the 27 that did.

Michael Bournival and Rene Bourque scored, Price made 26 saves and Montreal defeated Dallas 2-1 Tuesday night.

Defenseman Raphael Diaz assisted on both goals by the Canadiens, who had spoiled the New York Rangers’ home opener one night earlier.

Price got his sixth win in 11 starts after he was rested Monday, when backup Peter Budaj recorded the 2-0 win at Madison Square Garden.

All but two Montreal skaters, Tomas Plekanec and Alex Galchenyuk, had a blocked shot as the Canadiens held a 29-11 margin in that category.

“I thought we played a pretty good team game out there once again,” said Plekanec, who assisted on Bournival’s first-period goal. “It was back-to-back games and I thought we played

both games a pretty similar way. We were strong with our third man and played strong defense.”

Montreal (8-5-0) earned its third win in four games.

Cody Eakin scored his third goal late in the second period to draw Dallas to within one.

Dallas goalie Kari Lehtonen stopped 22 shots in his first loss during a run of four consecutive starts since returning from a lower-body injury. Lehtonen made 22 saves Monday in a 4-3 win over the Sabres in Buffalo.

The Stars (5-6-1) lost in regulation for the first time in four games (1-2-1).

“It was a pretty hard-fought game,” Dallas coach Lindy Ruff said. “They got a bounce on the first goal going wide, and I thought we did a good job killing off their power plays. We had some late opportunities point-blank. I thought they did a great job of being in shot lanes and blocking shots, probably a game we could have come out of here with points.”

The Canadiens went 0-for-3 on the power play against a Stars penalty-killing unit that had allowed seven power-play goals in 23 opportunities on the road. Dallas failed to score on its only opportunity with the man advantage.

Bournival opened the scoring with his third goal 12:02 into the first period. The rookie left winger tipped Diaz’s shot from the right point, and his deflection struck former Canadiens defenseman Stephane Robidas and bounced past Lehtonen.

“I wasn’t sure if I had touched it,” Bournival said. “It wasn’t obvious but when you are in front of the net anything can happen. You need to gain your position in front of the net and that’s what I did.”

Price stopped Jamie Benn’s shot moments later on a 3-on-1 break with Erik Cole and Tyler Seguin.

“He’s sharp,” Plekanec said. “You can see when he’s confident, he’s stopping everything.”

Diaz got his second straight assist on Bourque’s fourth goal at 12:55 of the second. Lehtonen stopped Bourque’s initial shot, but the Montreal left winger put the rebound between the Stars goalie’s pads for his third goal in seven games.

Eakin brought Dallas within 2-1 when his long shot beat Price at 17:27 of the second.

“We were working hard,” Seguin said. “There were some plays where we could have worked smarter. Our line couldn’t really get anything going tonight and we’ve got to be better. We have to step up a lot more than we did and show more leadership with these back-to-back games and get that first one going for us.”

Douglas Murray laid out Dallas left wing Lane MacDermid with a solid check in the third as the Canadiens defenseman was following through on a dump-in from just outside the Stars’ zone.

“You’ve got to protect yourself,” said Murray, who made his Canadiens debut Monday after missing Montreal’s first 11 games of the season because of a lower-body injury.

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