Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price (31) makes a save against Dallas Stars right wing Patrick Eaves (18) during the second periodat Bell Centre.Jean-Yves Ahern
Carey Price made 40 saves to lead the Montreal Canadiens to a 3-2 victory over the visiting Dallas Stars on Tuesday.
Alexei Emelin, Alex Galchenyuk and Brendan Gallagher scored for Montreal (30-13-3). Price earned his 25th victory of the season.
Jamie Benn and Patrick Eaves scored for the Stars (21-19-7), which are four points out of the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference. Kari Lehtonen stopped 23-of-26 shots in defeat.
Gallagher scored the winner on a power play at 4:37 into the second period. After Lehtonen saved P.K. Subban's shot from the point, Gallagher jumped on the rebound and scooped the puck over the sprawled-out Stars goaltender.
The Habs are 13-3-1 in their last 17 games since losing to the Stars in Dallas on Nov. 11.
The Canadiens benefited from a fluke goal to open the scoring at 6:07 of the first period. Emelin's innocuous dump-in from the Dallas blue-line ricocheted off Stars forward Cody Eakin and bounced awkwardly toward the net. The puck then evaded defenceman Trevor Daley, redirected off an unsuspecting Lehtonen and crossed the goal-line for Emelin's second goal of the season.
Galchenyuk staked Montreal to a rare 2-0 first-period lead with an impressive individual effort at 9:53. The 20-year-old cut back toward goal after streaking down the wing, escaped defenceman Jordie Benn's long reach and beat Lehtonen with a backhand, short side. It was the Habs' fifth shot on target.
Dallas scored a crucial and somewhat controversial goal with less than three seconds on the clock in the first. After an intentional offside call against Subban, the faceoff moved down the ice to the right of Price. With 2.7 seconds remaining in the period, referees chased Manny Malhotra — the league's most efficient faceoff-taker — from the faceoff circle. Gallagher then lost the faceoff cleanly to Jason Spezza and the puck went straight to Jamie Benn, who beat Price and the buzzer to reduce the deficit.
Price broke his stick on the frame of the goal in frustration following Benn's goal.
After scoring in the first, Emelin was ejected from the game five minutes into the second period after hitting Spezza from behind into the boards. Montreal's Brandon Prust had taken an interference penalty 20 seconds earlier.
The Stars failed to score on the ensuing 5-on-3 man advantage, but Eaves did beat Price as time expired on the Emelin major, at 10:05 of the second, to put the Stars within one.
Tyler Seguin got an assist on the goal, his team-leading 53rd point of the year.
Dallas squandered an opportunity to tie the game late with another 5-on-3 power play, this time for 1:03.
Winger Travis Moen was back at the Bell Centre for the first time since being traded by the Canadiens to the Stars on Nov. 11. Moen went to Dallas in the transaction that sent Sergei Gonchar to Montreal. In the teams' first encounter of the year — a 4-1 victory for the Stars — Moen and Gonchar were kept off the scoreboard.
Christian Thomas, recalled from the Hamilton Bulldogs of the AHL on Sunday, played on the fourth line with Malhotra and Michael Bournival.
Notes: Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau is still sidelined after sustaining a concussion on Jan. 15 versus the Ottawa Senators. Former Hab Erik Cole (upper body) was not in the lineup. Price and forward Jiri Sekac, who attended the all-star game last weekend in Columbus, did not practice with the Habs on Monday as their flight back home was delayed.