Brown, Canadiens keep Ducks from clinching

MONTREAL -- Montreal Canadiens right wing Mike Brown fell a fight short of a Gordie Howe Hat Trick, but he was greeted like Maurice Richard by a capacity Bell Centre crowd Tuesday after his rare two-point game.
Brown scored in the second period and set up Lucas Lessio's go-ahead goal at 8:13 of the third to give Montreal a 4-3 win against the Anaheim Ducks, who could have clinched a Western Conference berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs with a win.

"We didn't play good enough," Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau said. "When you give up four goals, you're not going to win a lot of games. And we gave up four goals and the guys that scored their goals, here, then everybody on their team got really hungry and determined. And we knew that was going to be the case. If we let them be in the game long enough, they were going to be a tough opponent, but we didn't take advantage in the first period when we should have."
Anaheim, which had won two in a row, plays at the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday.

"We've been playing a lot of good hockey over the last few months and we've just got to find a way to get back to there in Toronto," Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf said.
Jakob Silverberg scored twice and Corey Perry reached 30 goals for the sixth season for Anaheim (40-23-9). John Gibson made 19 saves.
"The goals they scored were some defensive-zone mistakes by us, it's not that they did anything super special, and that's obviously not the way we play when we're successful so we've got to help [Gibson] more than we did tonight," said Silfverberg, who has six goals in his past five games, including a hat trick in a 7-1 win against the New Jersey Devils on March 14.
Brown scored at 10:14 of the second for his first point in 10 games with the Canadiens, who claimed him off waivers from the San Jose Sharks on Feb. 29.

"It's unbelievable," Brown said about his reception after being named the game's first star. "We knew it was going to be a hard game to play. We would never have expected to be where we were in the third period, so for us it was great to get the two points. And I'm happy to be here, and I'm happy to play with these fans. I've been in this building a lot, playing against these guys, and it's nice to be on this side now. We're treated great, and these fans are great."
It was the second time Brown had two points in 403 NHL games. Brown, who has 774 penalty minutes, had a goal and an assist for the Toronto Maple Leafs in a 6-4 loss at the Carolina Hurricanes on Jan. 24, 2011.
"Ever since he got here he's just been energy on and off the ice, a really, really nice guy, and a huge addition to our locker room," Lessio said. "Tonight he came up huge, so it's nice to see."
Mike Condon made 32 saves, and Torrey Mitchell and Alex Galchenyuk scored for Montreal (34-34-6), which had lost two straight to fall below NHL .500 for the first time this season.

Canadiens defenseman Joel Hanley, playing in his second NHL game, had two assists.
Mitchell gave Montreal a 1-0 lead at 8:28 of the first. Mitchell deflected Tomas Plekanec's wrist shot from the left boards in midair and past Gibson for his ninth goal of the season.
Plekanec's assist was his 547th NHL point, tying him with Guy Carbonneau for 18th in Canadiens history.
Hanley, who debuted Sunday, got his first assist on Mitchell's goal. He had five goals and 13 points in 61 games with St. John's of the American Hockey League.

Silfverberg tied it at 1-1 with a shot that slipped between Condon's pads at 14:30 of the first.
Perry put Anaheim ahead 2-1 at 1:55 of the second. Perry tied Paul Kariya for second in 30-goal seasons in Ducks history. Teemu Selanne had seven 30-goal seasons with Anaheim.
Perry reached the milestone after scoring once in his previous eight games.
"He's a goal-scorer, and it's been a little while coming, but I knew he was going to get it eventually," Boudreau said.

The referees waved off a goal by Anaheim's Rickard Rackell at 3:08 of the second. A video review upheld their ruling that Rackell's stick made contact with the puck above the level of the crossbar when he deflected Cam Fowler's wrist shot.
Galchenyuk tied it at 2-2 with his Canadiens-leading 27th goal of the season at 8:58 of the second. Galchenyuk shot past Gibson from just below the right faceoff dot on a cross-ice pass from Max Pacioretty.
Hanley cut off Ducks defenseman Kevin Bieksa's on the left side of Anaheim's zone to create the opportunity that led to Montreal taking a 3-2 lead.
"I kind of just pinched down and got a stick on it," Hanley said.

The puck went right to the slot, where Brown curled to his right and cut back to the net to grab it and shoot past Gibson into the top right corner for his second goal of the season.
"I had kind of lot of emotions going through; the first one, just a little confused why the puck was right on my tape right in the slot, but I just thought, get the puck to the net and shoot," Brown said. "I was in tight and I wanted to get it up high, and that's where it went."
Silfverberg tied it at 3-3 with his second goal of the game, unassisted, at 11:59 of the second.
Brown connected on a pass from behind the net to Lessio, who scored his first goal in 11 games with Montreal to make it 4-3.