Sat Apr 5 21:57:46 2008

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Canadiens head to playoffs on high note with win over Leafs

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Montreal, QC (Sports Network) - Carey Price stopped 26 shots as the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs, 3-1, at Bell Centre in the regular season finale for both squads.

Christopher Higgins had a pair of goals while Mark Streit added a goal and an assist for the Canadiens, who now have 104 points and hold the first spot in the Eastern Conference.

Montreal will now await the outcome of the Pittsburgh/Philadelphia contest on Sunday. If Pittsburgh wins the contest, the Penguins will have the top spot in the Eastern Conference thanks to one more win than Montreal.

Mark Bell scored the lone goal while Andrew Raycroft made 33 saves for the Maple Leafs, who finished their season with a 36-35-11 mark, good for 83 points and 12th overall in the Eastern Conference. Toronto will be missing the postseason for the third straight year, the first time that has happened in the history of the team.

Raycroft helped to keep the Habs off the scoreboard early in the game as he made a sliding glove save less than a minute in.

Montreal weathered a long 5-on-3 Toronto power play, and thanks to four saves from Price the team was able to keep it a scoreless game.

Raycroft made 12 saves in the first frame while Price stopped eight shots.

The Canadiens grabbed a 1-0 lead at the nine-minute mark of the second period as Streit let fly with a simple wrister from the high slot that fooled Raycroft.

A bit over five minutes later, Montreal took a 2-0 lead. Flying down the right wing, Higgins snapped a wrister from the right circle that beat Raycroft to the glove side.

Toronto got a goal back with 1:58 left in the second as Kris Newbury centered the puck to Bell, who one-timed the puck into the left corner of the net to make it a 2-1 game.

The Canadiens regained their two-goal edge at the 7:28 mark of the third thanks to their top-ranked power play. Skating with a man advantage after Pavel Kubina was called for slashing, Bryan Smolinski centered the puck from behind the net to Higgins, who one-timed the puck past Raycroft for his 27th goal of the season.

Game Notes

The 104 points for the Canadiens is the most since the team had a 115-point season during the 1988-89 campaign...Montreal went 1-for-8 on the power play while Toronto finished 0-for-2...For the third straight season each team won four games in the season series.