The Canadiens have been waiting a long time to return to the top of their division, almost their rookie goalie's entire life.

Carey Price made 32 saves for his third shutout and Alex Kovalev scored his 35th goal as Montreal claimed its first division title in 16 years with a 3-0 win over Ottawa.

Mathieu Dandenault and Andrei Kostitsyn also scored for the Canadiens, who secured the Northeast title with 100 points.

Price, who improved to 22-12-3 overall, was 4 years old when Montreal won its last division title in 1991-92. The 20-year-old has started 13 of 17 games since he became the Canadiens' No.1 goalie when Cristobal Huet was sent to Washington at the trade deadline.

"I think everything that we've thrown at him, he's responded very well," coach Guy Carbonneau said.

"He did the same thing in junior, he did the same thing last year in the American league. He seems to get better when the pressure's on and the games are important.''

The Canadiens are tied with Pittsburgh atop the Eastern Conference. However, Pittsburgh has the tiebreaker by virtue of its 46 wins ' one more than Montreal ' with two games remaining for both. The Canadiens can finish no lower than second in the conference.

"There were a lot of questions that were unanswered at the start of September. I knew I had a good team, but not that good," said Carbonneau. "We achieved a lot. A hundred points, first in our division. I don't think it's something we thought about in September."

Meanwhile, the Senators, who were the class of the East for much of the season, have fallen to sixth, and though the possibility is slim, they could miss the playoffs.

' Alex Ovechkin scored his league-leading 63rd goal in Washington's 4-1 victory over Carolina.

' Zach Parise deflected in Johnny Oduya's shot 29 seconds into overtime for the New Jersey Devils, who clinched an Eastern Conference playoff berth with a 2-1 victory over the New York Islanders.

' Calgary closed in on a playoff spot and eliminated rival Edmonton in the process. Owen Nolan scored the winning goal with 3:44 left in regulation as the Flames won 3-2 and bounced the Oilers from the West playoff race.

' Evgeni Nabokov made 16 saves in his NHL-best 46th victory as the San Jose Sharks closed out their home schedule with a 5-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings.

' Milan Hejduk and Wojtek Wolski scored second-period goals 35 seconds apart to help the Colorado Avalanche clinch a playoff berth with a 4-2 comeback victory over the Vancouver Canucks.

' Rich Peverley scored 1:43 into overtime to give the Predators a 4-3 victory over the St. Louis Blues.

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