Montreal: Rookie Anthony Beauvillier scored in the first period and Thomas Greiss made 24 saves as the New York Islanders beat the Montreal Canadiens 3-0.
Anders Lee scored in the second period and John Tavares added an empty-netter in the final minute to seal the Islanders’ third straight win. New York have won the first two games on a crucial nine-game road swing and improved to 12-4-2 since interim coach Doug Weight replaced the fired Jack Capuano.
Josh Bailey and Brock Nelson each had two assists, and Greiss got his third shutout of the season.
Carey Price finished with 21 saves as the Canadiens lost coach Claude Julien’s 1,000th NHL game. Montreal is 1-2-0 since Julien replaced Michel Therrien last week and has totalled just 14 goals while going 2-7-1 in the last 10 games, including four shutouts.
Meanwhile, Mika Zibanejad scored the shoot-out winner and the New York Rangers continued a strong February with a 2-1 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Henrik Lundqvist made 32 saves and J.T. Miller scored the tying goal in the third period for the Rangers, who improved to 8-1-1 this month.
New York moved into third place in the Metropolitan Division with 80 points.
Connor Brown scored for Toronto, who fell to 1-7 in shoot-outs this season. Frederik Andersen had a stellar performance in defeat with 37 saves.
The Leafs hold the third play-off spot in the Atlantic Division (68 points), two points back of Ottawa (70) and four behind Montreal.
— AP
