John Gibson, Ducks hold off Canadiens

Despite allowing the first eight shots, the Anaheim Ducks recovered to get two of their own past Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price. And that was all they needed.
Rickard Rakell and Cam Fowler scored, and John Gibson made 39 saves to give Anaheim a 2-1 win at Honda Center on Tuesday.

WATCH: All Canadiens vs. Ducks highlights
Rakell scored his fifth goal in six games on a power play in the first period, and Fowler scored his seventh goal in the second period for the Ducks (11-8-4), who have won consecutive games following a three-game losing streak.
Gibson, who improved to 3-1-0 in four games against the Canadiens, came within 2:00 of a shutout when Montreal's Andrew Shaw scored with Price pulled for an extra attacker.
"We knew it was a big game," Gibson told the Ducks website. "It was a good test. They're the best team in the League and everyone wants to see how they stack up against the best. We played well. There were spurts when they dominated and there were spurts when we had lots of good possession and played how we wanted."
Price made 36 saves in his second regulation loss in 16 games this season for the Canadiens (16-5-2), who are 4-4-1 on the road.
"It's never fun to lose," Price said. "Looking back on it, there's always things you wish you would have done a little bit different to change the outcome."

The Canadiens, who won 2-1 in overtime at the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday to begin a five-game road trip, lead the NHL with 34 points.
"Both teams got a lot of quality scoring chances, and both goalies played really well," Montreal coach Michel Therrien said. "I really liked the way we got out of the gate tonight. I thought we were ready to play, we tried to dictate the game. I didn't like the way that we played in the second. They put pressure on us and we didn't react the right way, but we gave it all we got in the third."
Rakell gave the Ducks a 1-0 lead with his ninth goal on a power play at 16:50 of the first period.
Fowler made it 2-0 at 11:56 of the second period. Ryan Kesler assisted on both Anaheim goals.
It was the first time Price has trailed by two goals this season.
"Our start wasn't very good," Fowler said. "Before we were five minutes into the game, they had [eight] shots and we had nothing. They had their legs and were ready from the start. It might've caught us off guard a bit, but we started to get into it. We stayed in the game with some big saves from [Gibson]."

Goal of the game

Rakell was on the left edge of the crease, just in the right spot to shoot a loose puck to Price's right into the net to give Anaheim a 1-0 lead. The goal came on the Ducks' fourth shot of their first power play, 46 seconds after Canadiens defenseman Shea Weber was penalized for roughing at 16:04.

Saves of the game

Ducks center Corey Perry could only look up in wonder after Price stuck out his glove to make the save on his power-play shot with 14 seconds remaining in the second period. Anaheim had a two-man advantage for the final three seconds of the period when Price sprawled to save Ducks defenseman Sami Vatanen's shot, and time expired before center Antoine Vermette put the rebound into the net.

Highlight of the game

Fowler's goal finished off a nice passing play with Kesler and Jakob Silfverberg. The Ducks defenseman's shot from the left side might have deflected off Montreal center Alex Galchenyuk's stick on its way past Price.

Unsung moment of the game

Vatanen batted the puck out of midair to clear it from the goalmouth when Gibson gave up a rebound after making a save on Montreal defenseman Greg Pateryn's slap shot at 2:39 of the second period.

They said it

"They're a big-body team, big, heavy team playing down low. I think they did what they wanted to do and leaned on us down low and just kept throwing pucks towards the net and they jammed one in and got a lucky bounce on the other one, and that's all they needed. Their goaltender played pretty well." --Canadiens goalie Carey Price
"If your goaltender out-goaltends the opposition, usually you win. There aren't many goalies that have been able to do that against Price this year, but we provided enough offense. We were stout on the penalty kill and we won the special teams battle." -- Ducks coach Randy Carlyle
"[Price] came up big for us and kept us in the game, but I think we kind of got away from our game. We were using our speed there in the first and then we kind of got away from that. And it's something that we need to learn from because if we use our speed we're a tough team to handle." -- Canadiens defenseman Jeff Petry

Need to know

Montreal had seven shots on goal in the first 2:40 and outshot Anaheim 17-10 in the first period. ... The Ducks turned it around in the second, when they outshot Montreal, 21-13.

What's next

Canadiens: At the San Jose Sharks on Friday (10:30 p.m. ET; CSN-CA, SNE, RDS, NHL.TV)
Ducks: At the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday (10 p.m. ET; SN360, KCOP-13, NHL.TV)