Canadiens on verge of sweep after defeating Jets in Game 3

MONTREAL -- Joel Armia scored three points, including two shorthanded goals, for the Montreal Canadiens in a 5-1 win against the Winnipeg Jets in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Second Round at Bell Centre on Sunday.

Carey Price made 26 saves for the Canadiens, the No. 4 seed in the Scotia North Division, who have won six straight games in the Stanley Cup Playoffs after not having a winning streak longer than three games during the regular season.
"It's a different kind of confidence you get in the game when you know that you can trust the guy in the net, and I think he's been unbelievable," Armia said of Price, who got his eighth NHL playoff shutout in a 1-0 win in Game 2 on Friday.

Connor Hellebuyck made 28 saves for the Jets, the No. 3 seed. Adam Lowry scored in the second period to end Winnipeg's goal drought at 99:31.
"It's nice to get one behind [Price]," Lowry said. "Earlier in the year, I think everybody was ready to run Carey out of town and he couldn't find his game. Now he's back to the form that they all expect. It's in our best interest to chip away at that confidence and you just continue to get bodies to the net. He's a world-class goalie for a reason."
Montreal has not trailed for 376:14, dating to the start of Game 5 against the Toronto Maple Leafs in the Stanley Cup First Round, the fifth-longest streak in NHL playoff history. But Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher said he is mindful of when they fell behind 3-1 to the Maple Leafs before coming back to win the series.
"We know we're in a nice little rhythm right now, but we went through this last series and we know how quickly these things can change," Gallagher said. "We obviously have the advantage right now, but you've got to make sure that you don't give the other team any life, any hope."
Game 4 is here Monday (8 p.m. ET; NHLN, NBCSN, CBC, SN, TVAS).
"I think it's great for us right now, to be honest with you," Jets captain Blake Wheeler said. "Having to sit in a hotel room all day tomorrow and stew on that one, you would have a lot of guys burning inside. … Hopefully we get a good feeling in our room and start to rebuild ourselves. We've got to win a hockey game, no different than it was today. We've got to win one game, and then we'll see what happens."
The Canadiens have not swept a best-of-7 series since 2014 against the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Eastern Conference First Round.
"We know how difficult this is going to be," Gallagher said. "It's always difficult to put a team away. We were obviously on the other side of it last series. As soon as you get a sliver of hope, the momentum starts to build."

Corey Perry gave Montreal a 1-0 lead with his third goal of the playoffs at 4:45 of the first period. He came out from behind the net and shot inside the right post after Eric Staal's centering pass from the left corner deflected to him off Winnipeg defenseman Neal Pionk's stick.
The Jets had opportunities for the tying goal in the second period, but forward Nikolaj Ehlers hit the crossbar at 4:55, and Wheeler even celebrated briefly after he thought he scored on a shot off the crossbar at 8:38.
"It was pretty strange, I was dead certain that it went in," Wheeler said. "I thought it hit the back bar or the goalie camera, the camera in the net. It felt like I scored, it's a 1-1 hockey game, and it kind of changes the complexion of things. It's part of being good -- sometimes you've got to get lucky too -- so [Price is] obviously standing tall in the net right now, and things are going his way."
Artturi Lehkonen scored on Montreal's third straight shot in a goalmouth scramble at 9:24 of the second to make it 2-0.
Armia scored on a shot from the slot after toe-dragging the puck to get around defenseman Josh Morrissey on a 2-on-1 for a 3-0 lead at 13:41.
Lowry cut the lead to 3-1 at 17:51 when he redirected Mathieu Perreault's pass from the right side in off Price's blocker for his second goal of the series.
Nick Suzuki restored Montreal's three-goal lead at 4-1 with a power-play goal at 8:52 of the third period.
Armia scored the Canadiens' third shorthanded goal of the series, their fourth of the playoffs, into an empty net with 3:18 remaining for the 5-1 final.
NOTES: Canadiens defenseman Jeff Petry left the game after the second period because of an upper-body injury. "We'll have more news tomorrow," Montreal coach Dominique Ducharme said. "He's going to get checked out again." … Armia is the first player to score two shorthanded goals in a playoff game since Dustin Brown of the Los Angeles Kings in Game 2 of the 2012 Western Conference Quarterfinals against the Vancouver Canucks. … The Canadiens scored nine shorthanded goals during the regular season, tied with the Boston Bruins for the most in the NHL. ... Jets forward Paul Stastny was minus-2 with no shots on goal in 16:25 after missing the first two games of the series because of an undisclosed injury. … Winnipeg forward Mark Scheifele served the second of his four-game suspension for charging Montreal forward Jake Evans in Game 1.