The Montreal Canadiens have put their faith in rookie goaltender Carey Price, and he stood firm in a 5-1 win over the Atlanta Thrashers at the Bell Centre on Tuesday night.
Price was handed the No. 1 job when Montreal dealt Cristobal Huet to the Washington Capitals for a second-round draft pick at the NHL trade deadline.
Carey Price foils Eric Boulton (36) in Tuesday's 5-1 Canadiens triumph.
(Paul Chiasson/Canadian Press)
"I, definitely, was not expecting this to happen this year," Price said. "I think I'm as ready for it now as I will ever be."
"There is a risk there," Canadiens general manager Bob Gainey said. "But there's only one net and only so much time to play."
Price stopped 26 of 27 shots, and Christopher Higgins scored twice in less than three minutes in a four-goal third period for the Canadiens (34-21-9).
Higgins broke a 1-1 deadlock at 2:10 of the period, converting Michael Ryder's cross-crease pass for a power-play marker, put Montreal ahead 3-1 with his 21st goal of the season at 4:56, and set up Andrei Markov for a power-play goal at 8:17.
Forty-seven seconds later, rookie Sergei Kostitsyn capped the outburst with his seventh.
"We realize that this is our team now, so we may as well come together and get really tight," Higgins said. "The organization has trust in us and faith in us to do the job this year, and now it is time to make that happen."
Higgins finished with three points, Maxim Lapierre opened the scoring, and Markov had a goal and an assist, as Montreal moved to within one point of the front-running Ottawa Senators in the Northeast Division.
'It is about the team'
Saku Koivu provided two assists.
"We talked before the game about how this team has been successful this season and it is about the team, not about one or two players," he said. "You are not going to go far in the playoffs with three or four guys.
"You need all four lines to contribute. We wanted to get back to that team game."
Ilya Kovalchuk scored his team-high 41st goal for the Thrashers (29-31-4), who suffered their fourth straight setback.
Kari Lehtonen faced 33 shots in defeat.
"Tomorrow is a fresh start," Thrashers GM and head coach Don Waddell said. "We have two new players [Colby Armstrong and Erik Christensen] who will join our team and, obviously, they will play on the top three lines."
Atlanta swung the biggest deal at the NHL's trade deadline, sending forwards Marian Hossa and Pascal Dupuis to the Pittsburgh Penguins for Armstrong, Christensen, prospect Angelo Esposito and a first-round draft pick.
With files from the Canadian Press
