National Hockey League
BOXSCORE | RECAP
Montreal 3, Vancouver 0
When: 7:30 PM ET, Wednesday, November 2, 2016
Where: Bell Centre, Montreal, Quebec
Referees: Dean Morton, Francois St. Laurent
Linesmen: David Brisebois, Brandon Gawryletz
Attendance: 21288

MONTREAL -- The Montreal Canadiens made history with a 3-0 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday night at the Bell Centre.

Nathan Beaulieu, Torrey Mitchell and Alexander Radulov scored to extend the Canadiens' winning streak to eight games, giving them the most points (19) through 10 games in franchise history.

Goaltender Carey Price made 42 saves for the Canadiens (9-0-1), earning his 37th career shutout.

It's the third straight season that Montreal has won at least eight of its first 10.

"I think the guys are playing with some confidence," said Price of the success. "It's pretty obvious that we have a good chemistry going in this room. But it's early. We're just going to have to keep doing the things that are making us successful."

Ryan Miller stopped 19 shots for the struggling Canucks, who dropped their sixth straight.

Price was the busier of the two goaltenders in the first period, and by a wide margin. The Canucks (4-5-1), averaging 25 shots on goal per game this season, tossed more than half of that on the Montreal netminder, outshooting the home side 13-3 after 20 minutes.

"When you're struggling to score goals, you start chasing the game, you start forechecking too hard, and you lose guys in the offensive zone," Daniel Sedin said. "Tonight we had our third guy high, our defensemen could pinch, kept the play alive; that's why we had a lot of zone time, too, and more offensive shots. But can we do it again? That's the challenge for us.

"If we can do it once, I think we can do it every game."

It set a new 2016-17 Canadiens season low for shots on goal in a period.

"We've been talking now for a couple of days about wanting to get better and tonight, for the most part until the end of the game, was a poor effort," Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty said. "Very poor execution. We have to play much, much better than that. Carey stole two points for us."

Vancouver had a couple of chances in the first, including a Jannik Hansen breakaway that was stopped by Price and a near breakaway by Daniel Sedin that was negated on a strong backcheck by Radulov.

"Maybe guys were shooting a little too fine, knowing who was in net, they thought they had to be perfect on their shots," Canucks coach Willie Desjardins. "He's a good goalie and we knew coming in that we'd need deflections or tips to beat him."

It was more of the same in the second, as the Canucks kept Price busy, with Montreal not registering its first shot until six and a half minutes in. The Canadiens got a few more over the next couple of minutes on Miller before the shots went the other way.

Their next shot turned out to be a big one. Miller stopped a Brendan Gallagher shot from the right circle. The rebound went straight into the slot to a hard-charging Beaulieu, who had joined the rush, and the Canadiens defenseman easily poked it into an open net at 12:22.

Mitchell's fifth of the season doubled Montreal's lead at 19:11. Phillip Danault drove up the left side and outskated Daniel Sedin before sending a cross-ice feed to an uncovered Mitchell at the bottom of the right circle.

Radulov was awarded a goal when Vancouver defenseman Alexander Edler slashed the winger as he aimed toward the empty net at 18:05 of the third period.

NOTES: As the 2016-17 season hit the three-week mark, the Canucks began their fourth back-to-back series. ... After returning 2016 first-round pick Mikhail Sergachev to the Ontario Hockey League's Windsor Spitfires earlier in the week, Montreal was left with no healthy extras on their active roster. ... Vancouver LW Alexandre Burrows and RW Derek Dorsett returned to the lineup after missing the previous four games with injury. D Chris Tanev returned after missing three games with injury. ... The Canucks scratched RW Jack Skille, D Alex Biega and D Nikita Tryamkin. ... Montreal C Tomas Plekanec suited up for his 853rd career NHL game, tying him with Jacques Lemaire on the Canadiens' career games played list. ... During the game, Habs announced that LW Daniel Carr and D Joel Hanley had been called up from the AHL's St. John's IceCaps.
Top Game Performances
 
Vancouver   Montreal
N/A Points Alex Galchenyuk 2
N/A Goals Nathan Beaulieu 1
N/A Assists Alex Galchenyuk 2
N/A Power Play Goals N/A
N/A Short Handed Goals N/A
Ryan Miller .905 Save Percentage Carey Price 1.000
Ryan Miller 19 Saves Carey Price 42
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Shots Goals Power Play Penalty Kill Penalty Mins Face Offs Won
Vancouver 42 0 0-5 3-3 6 31
Montreal 21 3 0-3 5-5 10 29
Upcoming Games
  • Montreal will play their next game on the road against Columbus. The Canadiens have a W/L % of .889 after a win and 1.000 after a loss.
  • Vancouver will play their next game on the road against Ottawa. The Canucks have a W/L % of .800 after a win and .000 after a loss.