Galchenyuk, Desharnais score in SO as Canadiens beat Leafs
MONTREAL (AP) - Facing the struggling Toronto Maple Leafs didn't turn out to be an easy night for the Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Canadiens.
Alex Galchenyuk and David Desharnais scored in the shootout to lift the Canadiens to a 2-1 victory over the Maple Leafs on Saturday night, keeping Toronto winless in its last 13 road games (0-11-2).
"You knew they were going to take this game seriously and come out with a great performance," Canadiens defenseman P.K. Subban said of the Leafs. "It was a playoff-type game out there."
Brendan Gallagher scored in regulation and Carey Price made 28 saves for Montreal, which has points in five straight games.
"I thought we responded well. Even when pucks weren't bouncing our way, we stuck with the plan," Subban said. "We waited for our opportunity and today it was going to come in the shootout. Great goals by Chucky and Davy and that's all she wrote."
Daniel Winnik scored for Toronto, which is 0-11-2 in its last 13 road games. Jonathan Bernier finished with 31 saves through overtime.
"It was probably our best 65 minutes in two weeks," Winnik said. "We checked hard all night and didn't give them much offensively and we created quite a lot of chances."
With the score tied 1-1 late in the first period, David Clarkson was ejected for a hit that rammed Sergei Gonchar's face into the boards and put the Montreal defenseman out of the game with an upper-body injury.
Nathan Beaulieu took up his fellow defenseman's cause by dropping the gloves with Clarkson and got a total of 17 penalty minutes. Subban and Andrei Markov played nearly all of the rest of the period and ended the game with 35:21 and 31.57 of ice time respectively.
Subban credited his offseason training with being able to handle the extra work.
"In the offseason, my training and fitness come first," he said. "It's one thing to want to be a go-to guy and get paid like one, and it's another thing to go out and perform like one every night. That's my job."
The Leafs took a first-period lead for the first time in seven games when Winnik was left alone in the right circle and beat Price at 11:19.
"It's getting lost in the slot, that's where the goals are," Winnik said. "Richie (Panik) found me in the right spot and I just shot it. I knew there were bodies in front and tried to get it through."
Toronto's advantage lasted only 41 seconds, as the Canadiens tied it on a power play when Gallagher reached into the crease to put in Tomas Plekanec's pass.
Three minutes into overtime, Panik hit a goalpost with a shot from the point. And the Leafs were pressing for the game-winner in the final seconds of the extra period.
"It wasn't an easy game," Montreal coach Michel Therrien said.
NOTES: Montreal made two lineup changes, bringing in Manny Malhotra and Mike Weaver and sitting out Jiri Sekac and Tom Gilbert. ... Petter Granberg was scratched for the Leafs.