MONTREAL — Carey Price made his long-awaited return to the Montreal Canadiens but Ilya Sorokin and the New York Islanders had the last laugh.
Sorokin made 44 saves to record the shutout while Zach Parise, Noah Dobson and Brock Nelson scored and the Islanders (35-30-9) grabbed a 3-0 win over the Canadiens (20-44-11).
The Bell Centre crowd was cheering for Price in his return between the pipes from the second he jumped on the ice for warmups all the way to the final buzzer. Price gave up two goals on 19 shots but Canadiens fans kept cheering following every save.
At the other side of the ice, Sorokin saw most of the action playing on the second night of back-to-back games. Sorokin had blocked 30 shots by the second intermission, more than his 22-save tally in Thursday night’s 6-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
After two scoreless periods, the Islanders threw a cold shower onto Habs fans by breaking the ice and ruining Price’s shutout.
Corey Schueneman turned the puck over in the offensive zone, leading New York on the rush. Matt Barzal combined with Parise at 4:25 of the third period for New York’s first goal of the game.
The floodgates opened for the visitors at 6:09 when Dobson beat Price with a shot from the right faceoff circle.
Nelson added the late empty-netter, sealing the Islanders’ 3-0 win.
Prior to the game, the Canadiens organization recognized Islanders great and Montreal native Mike Bossy, who passed away late Thursday, with a tribute and moment of silence.
