MONTREAL - Benoit Pouliot and Brian Gionta scored in the second period and Carey Price made 27 saves for his sixth shutout of the season as the Montreal Canadiens skated to a 3-0 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night.
David Desharnais scored in the third period and also had an assist to give the rookie centre six points in his last three games.
Price needed only a handful of sharp saves to earn his 10th career shutout -- and second of the season against Toronto -- as Montreal outshot the Leafs 39-27.
The victory ended a three-game winless run for Montreal (31-20-6), which has not lost more than three in a row this season.
The Leafs (23-27-6) were beaten in regulation time for the first time in four games.
The Bell Centre was packed with 21,273 of the usual boisterous fans for both teams for a Saturday night Leafs-Canadiens contest and they saw a fast-paced but largely uneventful game in which the Canadiens held a clear edge in play.
A scoreless first period was marked with seven seconds to play by a free-swinging bout between newly acquired Leaf Joffrey Lupul and P.K. Subban.
Desharnais slipped a pass into the crease where Pouliot was alone to score from the slot 10:12 into the second frame.
Gionta scored on a nearly identical play 1:40 later. Max Pacioretty made the pass while being checked to the ice by Luke Schenn for another high shot from the slot past a helpless Jean-Sebastien Giguere.
Desharnais skated hard to the net to tip a Scott Gomez pass in on a power play at 6:19 of the third.
The rivals have split four games this season, with each winning twice at home. The Leafs visit Montreal again Feb. 24 and the teams close out the regular season against each other April 9 in Toronto.
Notes: Price played in his 50th game of the season. ... Phil Kessel had some good chances, but saw his goalless drought extend to 14 games. ... Mathieu Darche (lower body) and Hal Gill (upper body) each sat out a second game, while Michael Cammalleri (shoulder) missed a 10th for Montreal, which has also lost defencemen Andrei Markov and Josh Gorges for the season. ... Colby Armstrong, who complained of blurred vision this week, did not play for Toronto and was replaced by Fredrik Sjostrom. Carl Gunnarsson didn't play for a third straight game.
