Brendan Gallagher scored in the first period and Carey Price made 43 saves as the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Ottawa Senators 2-0 to advance to the second round of the NHL playoffs on Sunday night.
Montreal won the best of seven series 4-2, but lost two in a row after taking a 3-0 series lead.
Max Pacioretty sealed the win with an empty-net goal with one second remaining.
Price, nominated for the Vezina Trophy as the league's top goalie and perhaps a candidate for most valuable player honours, rebounded after allowing five goals in game 5 with a masterful effort as Ottawa outshot the Canadiens 43-20.
Montreal, which reached the Eastern Conference final last spring, is in the second round for a second year in a row for the first time since 1992 and 1993.
After controlling the early going, the Canadiens got the first goal for the first time in the series when Gallagher took a high Greg Pateryn shot off his body and batted it past Craig Anderson at 13:26.
Montreal had the first six shots of the game but the Senators outshot them 16-3 in a dominant second in which they did everything but score.
The 20,500 fans at the Canadian Tire Centre were screaming for a too many men on the ice call against Montreal when perhaps a worse omission occurred as referee Chris Lee blew a quick whistle just before Jean-Gabriel Pageau put a puck in at 6:55 that had fallen past Price.
With Senators legend Daniel Alfredsson cheering from a luxury box, Ottawa went all out in the third for the equalizer but Montreal finished with strong checking and two or three more solid saves from Price.
A late tripping call on Jacob de la Rose gave Ottawa a last chance on the power play, and near the end of it pulled Anderson for a two-skater advantage.
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