Canadiens, Wild on to next round
Carey Price made 43 saves, Brendan Gallagher scored in the first period, and the visiting Montreal Canadiens defeated the Ottawa Senators, 2-0, Sunday night to advance to the second round of the NHL playoffs where they will face Detroit or Tampa Bay.
Carey Price made 43 saves, Brendan Gallagher scored in the first period, and the visiting Montreal Canadiens defeated the Ottawa Senators, 2-0, Sunday night to advance to the second round of the NHL playoffs where they will face Detroit or Tampa Bay.
Max Pacioretty sealed the win with an empty-net goal with a second remaining.
Montreal won the best-of-seven series in six games but lost two in a row after taking a 3-0 series lead - and Ottawa nearly sent it to a deciding seventh game.
Price, nominated for the Vezina Trophy as the league's top goalie, rebounded after allowing five goals in Game 5 with a masterful effort as the Senators outshot the Canadiens 43-20.
Montreal, which reached the Eastern Conference finals last spring, is in the second round for a second consecutive year for the first time since 1992 and '93.
After controlling the game early, the Canadiens got the first goal for the first time in the series when Gallagher took Greg Pateryn's high shot off his body and batted it past Craig Anderson 13 minutes, 26 seconds into the first period.
Montreal had the first six shots of the game, but the Senators outshot them by 16-3 in a dominant second period in which they did everything but score.
Wild 4, Blues 1 - Zach Parise scored twice, including a shorthanded goal to get host Minnesota going in the first period, and the Wild advanced to the Western Conference semifinals with a victory over St. Louis in Game 6.
Justin Fontaine also scored, Nino Niederreiter added an empty-net goal, and the Wild set up a rematch of their second-round loss last year to Chicago.
T.J. Oshie scored his first goal of the series with four seconds remaining in the second period and the Blues outshot the Wild, 27-11, in the final two periods.
Devan Dubnyk made 30 saves, giving him 67 over the last two games after the 6-1 defeat in Game 4 that allowed the Blues to tie the series.
The Wild outscored them 8-2 after that, and the Blues lost their 10th straight postseason game when facing elimination.
-Associated Press