MONTREAL - Carey Price made 30 saves for his 33rd win of the season and the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Ottawa Senators 4-1 on Sunday night to sweep the home-and-home series.

Tomas Plekanec, Jordie Benn, Paul Byron and Nathan Beaulieu scored for the Canadiens, who lead the Atlantic Division by four points over the Senators, who still have one game in hand.

Tom Pyatt scored a first-period goal for the Senators. Craig Anderson stopped 33 shots.

The Canadiens also beat the Senators in Ottawa on Saturday, winning 4-3 in a shootout. Price made 28 saves in that game, while Anderson stopped 29 shots in defeat.

With Montreal leading 2-1 in the third period Sunday, Byron made it a two-goal lead for the Canadiens when he went five-hole on Anderson at 3:30, opting to shoot while on a 2-on-1 with Plekanec.

The goal was Byron's 20th of the season. He also added an assist on Montreal's first goal of the game.

Beaulieu made in 4-1, on the power play, scoring with a slap shot from the blue line with Anderson screened by Artturi Lehkonen at 5:08.

Montreal is now 8-4-2 in the second game of a back-to-back. The Senators are 6-4-1.

Sunday's game had big playoff implications, and the energy on the ice and atmosphere in the stands were definitely playoff-like. Montreal came out flying, only needing 28 seconds to get the sell-out crowd off its feet.

Plekanec scored his first goal since Jan. 24 when Andrei Markov's shot from the point bounced off Anderson's chest and fell right to the veteran center in the crease for his eighth of the season.

The lead was short-lived as Pyatt scored the equalizer at 4:36 of the first when his shot from close range deflected off Benn's stick and skipped over Price's outstretched pad.

Benn made up for the mistake later in the same period when his shot from the point deflected off Viktor Stalberg's stick to beat Anderson glove side at 17:45.

NOTES: Price only faced six shots in the second period, but needed to be at his best when Kyle Turris fired a one-timer. The Canadiens goalie sprang to his right and did the splits to get his toe on the puck. ... Montreal's Alexei Emelin was back in the lineup after he was a healthy scratch in Ottawa. ... The Canadiens are 10-4-0 under Claude Julien. ... Torrey Mitchell played his 600th NHL game.

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Johnny Hockey, indeed.

Calgary Flames winger Johnny Gaudreau wowed the home crowd Sunday with this breakaway move on Ben Bishop and the Los Angeles Kings.

The play was kick-started by a perfect pass from Sean Monahan, who frequently collaborates with Gaudreau.

The goal was Gaudreau's 16th of the season, and quite possibly the prettiest.

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Calgary Flames rookie forward Matthew Tkachuk may soon hear from the NHL after a blatant elbow to the head of Los Angeles' Drew Doughty.

No penalty was called for the elbow itself - which occurred late in the first period - although Tkachuk drew two minutes for roughing during the ensuing scrum.

Here's a closer, slowed-down look:

Doughty went to the locker room for observation, but was able to return for the second period.

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Things fell apart rather quickly for the Colorado Avalanche after amassing a 3-1 lead over the Blackhawks in Chicago on Sunday, and by quickly, we mean "blink and you missed it."

It all started with Jonathan Toews' 19th goal of the season, which was deemed good after a lengthy offside review. While Toews scored by deflecting the puck in front of the net, the zone entry did not appear to be on the level.

The NHL, however, saw it differently.

That opened the floodgates, as Richard Panik and Artemi Panarin each scored within the next 34 seconds to give Chicago the lead.

Toews added his 20th shortly thereafter to cap an offensive outburst of four goals in 3:02 en route to an eventual 6-3 win for the Blackhawks.

It's been that kind of season for the Avs.

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Nothing new to see here - just Carey Price being Carey Price.

The Montreal Canadiens' all-world netminder - starting his second game in as many nights - showed no signs of fatigue on this play, springing across the crease to make an incredible toe save on Ottawa's Kyle Turris.

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Bruce Boudreau's on a five-game regulation losing streak for the first time in his coaching career, and his postgame scrum Sunday perfectly summed up how he was feeling.

The Minnesota Wild erased a 4-0 deficit, scoring four in the second period to tie the game, but eventually fell 5-4. Boudreau wanted nothing of a question about his club's "resiliency" in almost pulling off a miracle comeback:

"That's all, I'm done."

And another career first for Boudreau:

Minnesota's 2-8 in March. Better now than in April, right?

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Hips don't lie.

In Claude Giroux's case, an inability to bounce back quickly from offseason hip surgery has taken a toll at times this season, the Philadelphia Flyers captain admitted prior to Sunday's game against the Hurricanes.

"When you try to make plays you used to make and can't really make them, it is frustrating and confusing," Giroux said, according to Marc Narducci of Philly.com. "When you start getting the confidence back, you know you can make those plays you just go out there and make it happen."

Giroux added, "Even if you don't feel good out there, you have to find the right way to be strong mentally."

Giroux's numbers are indeed down - his 14 goals and 37 assists through 70 games have him on pace for production levels unseen since early in his career.

The good news is that he's been able to play every game for the Flyers this season, and a healthy summer with regular workouts will be key to the team's chances of bouncing back with a more successful 2017-18.

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Connor McDavid and Cam Talbot have the Edmonton Oilers on the cusp of the playoffs.

And while the world is now well aware of the absurd talent McDavid possesses, as the 20-year-old eyes his first of many Art Ross and Hart trophies, it can be argued that Talbot's been as crucial to the Oilers' success as No. 97.

Related: Talbot continues climb among Oilers' all-time netminding greats

By now, you know the facts: No goalie has played more games, faced more shots, and made more saves than Talbot. And you can forget about fatigue - Talbot's save percentage is an exceptional .929 in March.

Talbot's not worried about the workload. It's the culmination of his hard work, his journey to becoming a No. 1, and of the habits he picked up along the way.

"I've always had a pretty good work ethic and I got to sit behind one of the best in the world and watch his work ethic for two years," Talbot told NHL.com's Tim Campbell, reflecting on his two seasons as Henrik Lundqvist's backup with the New York Rangers.

After providing excellent relief in 34 starts in 2015-16 when Lundqvist was hurt, Talbot got his chance. He was traded to the Oilers for three draft picks in late June 2015, and, in his late 20s, he knew it was now or never. When the time came, he planned to be ready. And he was. He is.

Now, with a top-10 save percentage in the league, Talbot is willing to look back, albeit briefly.

"I did a good job preparing myself," he said.

Talbot signed a three-year extension last January, and he certainly hasn't let the security of $12.5 million affect how hard he works, or his game.

"You can never be too sure," he said. "You want to be confident in yourself. But I still had something to prove to myself, and to this organization when they traded for me. I think I've done a pretty good job of that."

If you disagree, you're wrong. Simple as that.

Talbot has never started a playoff game. That'll change this spring. In two limited postseason relief appearances in 2014, the 29-year-old stopped 11 of 13 shots. Here's another safe bet: That .846 save percentage is going up.

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Eric Staal became the first player from the 2003 NHL Draft class to appear in his 1,000th career game Sunday in Winnipeg.

The milestone wasn't lost on him, despite the fact his Minnesota Wild dropped a fifth straight game, this time to a Jets club far down in the standings.

Staal is also the highest-scoring player selected in 2003, with the vast majority of his career spent with the Carolina Hurricanes.

Staal has been a big part of the Wild's success this season, setting aside the recent skid. His resurgence suggests there's plenty left in the tank to add to his totals.

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March hasn't been too kind to the Minnesota Wild ... or their head coach.

The former Central Division leaders traveled north for a date with the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday, falling 5-4 to bring their record to 2-8 this month.

It was also Minnesota's fifth consecutive defeat in regulation - the first time a team under the command of Boudreau has ever done so, per Michael Russo of the Star Tribune.

The Wild put forth a valiant effort against the Jets, heavily controlling the shot counter (48-21), and erasing a 4-0 deficit to tie the game with four goals in a span of just over 10 minutes in the second period. But it wasn't enough.

The loss also kept the gap between Minnesota and the Central-leading Chicago Blackhawks at five points, a stunning development after the Wild were nine points clear of their division rivals a month ago.

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