Canadiens top Canucks for sixth straight win

VANCOUVER --Paul Byron scored on a deflection 1:13 into overtime and the Montreal Canadiens won their sixth straight game with a 2-1 victory against the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena on Tuesday.
Alex Galchenyuk's shot from between the faceoff circles bounced off Byron in the slot and past Ryan Miller, who was caught moving the other way on the original shot.

"It hit me on the inside of the pants, kind of right off the cup there, so it caught me by surprise," Byron said. "It's playoff hockey right now, so sometimes you just got to go to the blue paint, get hit in the leg and get a goal."
WATCH: All Canadiens vs. Canucks highlights
Torrey Mitchell scored 3:57 into the first period and Carey Price made 27 saves for the Canadiens (38-21-8), who lead the Ottawa Senators by six points for first place in the Atlantic Division.
Price has a .964 save percentage while winning his past five starts.
"It's not just me, it's our defensive play in general," Price said. "Our guys did a good job of keeping everything to the outside and battling for the rebounds I left out there."
Canucks forward Michael Chaput tied the game on a deflection with 7:11 left in the third period, and Miller made 36 saves for the Canucks (28-30-8), who fell seven points behind the St. Louis Blues for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference.
"It's almost kind of comical," Miller said of the winning goal, which barely eluded his glove. "It's at your fingertips, it feels like you can do nothing about it. It's right there, but you can't get it. It's a tough feeling."

Vancouver controlled play early, but Mitchell scored his first goal in 39 games on Montreal's second shot, going to the net unchecked to redirect Andrei Markov's point shot between Miller's legs. It was Mitchell's first goal since scoring twice against the New Jersey Devils on Dec. 8, but he didn't get to celebrate long; he played two shifts in the first period because of illness before returning for the second period and finishing the game with 10:06 of ice time.
"We have to give him a lot of credit because he was sick," Canadiens coach Claude Julien said. "[He] spent most of the first period in the bathroom, and then he came back and he didn't have a ton of energy."
Canadiens forward Brian Flynn also left after two shifts in the first period because of an upper-body injury.
"Our guys buckled down because we got short there quickly," Julien said.

Goal of the game

Chaput was left alone in the slot to tip Alexander Edler's point shot past Price on the blocker side to tie it 1-1.

Save of the game

Nikolay Goldobin got behind the Canadiens defense with speed with 4:06 left in the first period and made a nice deke, but Price stretched out with his left pad to stop the shot and rebound.

Unsung performance of the game

Canadiens center Philip Danault took a game-high 28 faceoffs and won 20 of them.

Highlight of the game

Price robbed Markus Granlund alone in tight twice seven minutes into the third period, leading to loud chants of "Price, Price" from a Vancouver crowd with lots of Canadiens jerseys. "I love it here, it's always nice to come home," said Price, a native of British Columbia.

They said it

"I have been here before with this team and there are a lot of people out west that love the Montreal Canadiens, but tonight to be honest with you I was surprised to see how many red jerseys were out there and it felt a little bit like a home game, so it's good for our team." -- Canadiens coach Claude Julien
"Both goalies were unbelievable in this game. They were definitely the first stars of this one." -- Canadiens forward Paul Byron
"It was a good attitude from the team. We battled back. We got that little burst of energy off the [tying] goal. We made some plays, guys were moving up ice. For me, that was really encouraging." -- Canucks goalie Ryan Miller

Need to know

Flynn's left arm was in a sling as he left Rogers Arena. Julien said he would be re-evaluated on Wednesday. … Defenseman Brandon Davidson made his Canadiens debut after being acquired from the Edmonton Oilers in a trade for forward David Desharnais on Feb. 28. Davidson replaced Alexei Emelin, a healthy scratch, on a pairing with Jeff Petry.

What's next

Canucks:Host the New York Islanders on Thursday (10 p.m. ET; SNP, MSG, NHL.TV)
Canadiens:At the Calgary Flames on Thursday (9 p.m. ET; SNW, SNE, RDS, NHL.TV)