Montreal scored both goals in Game 1 after defensive-zone cough-ups by the Bruins. In the first period, Tomas Kaberle tried to reverse the puck behind his net to Dennis Seidenberg. But Kaberle put too much on his backhand and Scott Gomez picked it off. Gomez gave the puck to Brian Gionta, who had an easy tap-in to beat Tim Thomas.

In the third, Milan Lucic tried to break the puck out of the zone with speed. But Gomez stepped in front of Lucic and stripped him of the puck. Again, Gomez gave Gionta a pass. And again, Gionta got the best of Thomas.

"Individual or whatever, it just doesn't matter to me," said Gomez. "It's always fun to win. It was a team effort. If anything, I know my job is to get it to Gio. He's a goal scorer."

Montreal wins matchup

As expected, Jacques Martin deployed his top pairing of P.K. Subban and Hal Gill against Boston's No. 1 line of Lucic, David Krejci, and Nathan Horton. Subban led all players with 27:07 of ice time. Gill assumed a 22:34 workload. Subban and Gill helped limit the first line to four shots. Horton had three and Lucic recorded one. Krejci didn't put a single puck on goal.

Even though Claude Julien had the last change, he didn't opt to alter the matchups to get his first line away from Subban and Gill.

"When you look at the scoresheet tonight, it's pretty obvious we need those guys to produce for us," said Julien. "They're among the rest of the team that has to do a better job of that. We'll deal with those kinds of things internally. But no doubt we have some players that we'd like to see be a little better offensively and give us a little bit more of an offensive punch to their game."

Hard block life

Early in the first period, Andrei Kostitsyn limped to the dressing room after taking a Zdeno Chara blast off the leg. Midway through the second, Chara cranked a shot off Travis Moen's leg. Both players returned to play.

They were two of 19 blocked shots the Canadiens recorded, no doubt helping Carey Price record his third career playoff shutout. Brent Sopel and James Wisniewski had four blocks each to lead the Canadiens.

"When I have guys that are willing to sacrifice any part of their body to keep the puck out of the net and from reaching me, I'll let them know for sure," said Price (31 saves). "That is encouraging and good for our hockey team."

Price stands tall

Price stopped 31 shots to record his third career playoff shutout, all against the Bruins. Price's best save came in the second period after he flubbed a bouncing puck. Once the puck dropped to the slot, Shawn Thornton pounced on it and sent a point-blank shot on goal. But Price was positioned square to the shot and he turned aside Thornton's chance.

"Carey did a great job," Gionta said. "If you look at some of the saves he made, it's a 1-0 game for most of it and he keeps us in that game. He gives us a chance like he has all year."

Powering down

The Canadiens were 0 for 4 on the power play. The Bruins were 0 for 3.

"The first power definitely didn't go a very good job," Claude Julien said of his team's first-period power play, which came after Roman Hamrlik was called for interference. "Certainly at that time, you needed that momentum. The ones afterward, I thought we had some great shots from the blue-line.

Again, same old, same old. We had some great shots. But we didn't do a very good job in front of the net with screens and loose pucks, and we weren't able to capitalize."

Boston's PP units:

PP1: Zdeno Chara, Tomas Kaberle, David Krejci, Milan Lucic, Nathan Horton
PP2: Patrice Bergeron, Dennis Seidenberg, Rich Peverley, Mark Recchi, Brad Marchand

Montreal's PP units:

PP1: James Wisniewski, P.K. Subban, Scott Gomez, Brian Gionta, Mathieu Darche
PP2: Jaroslav Spacek, Roman Hamrlik, Tomas Plekanec, Mike Cammalleri, Ryan White

Odds and ends

Bergeron won 12 of 17 faceoffs... Tyler Seguin was the healthy scratch for the Bruins. Paul Mara and Yannick Weber didn't dress for the Canadiens... Ryan White led all players with seven hits... Brad Marchand had a game-high six shots. Marchand's best chance went wide of the net in the first. Marchand was looking at an empty net, but he heeled his one-timer. Marchand could have tied the game... Marchand, Horton, and Gregory Campbell made their postseason debuts for the Bruins. White, David Desharnais, and Lars Eller also appeared in their first career playoff games.