MONTREAL -- Head coach Michel Therrien called Carey Price his "closer," referring to a baseball pitcher whose job it is to preserve a slim advantage late in the game and secure a win. With the Canadiens leading by one to start the third period, Price turned away 16 shots by the Panthers in the final frame to give Montreal a 2-1 victory over Florida on Monday night. The Panthers (16-21-6) outshot Montreal 16-10 in the final frame, but were repeatedly frustrated by Price, who made 26 saves on the night. "The Panthers gave a big push in the third," said Therrien. "Again, Carey Price was solid. He shut the door. There was no way in his mind the Panthers would score another against him. I really liked his reaction. "He played really well. He was like a closer in baseball." Price frustrated 11 different Panthers players in the third period, including four shots by Sean Bergenheim, who was Floridas lone scorer on the night. "We relied on him a little more than we would have liked to in the third," said Brendan Gallagher of Prices 16-save period. "But hes done that all year. Hes there for us when we need him." Before the barrage of shots in final period, the Canadiens (25-14-5) took the lead for good at 15:46 of the second when captain Brian Gionta beat Tim Thomas in the roof of the net. Panthers captain Ed Jovanovski started the play by giving the puck away softly behind the Florida net to Tomas Plekanec, who fed a wide-open Gionta for his seventh goal of the year. Jovanovski was back in the Panthers lineup after undergoing hip surgery last April. He made his season debut on Saturday in a win over the Nashville Predators. "Its his second game since March," said Florida head coach Peter Horachek about Jovanovski, who missed 83 games with the injury. "Its late in the game, he fanned on the pass. That stuff is going to happen sometimes. "I think hes done a good job for the amount of time hes been out. Its a process. I think he would like to have (that pass) back." Montreal opened the score at 6:23 of the first period on the teams first shot on net. David Desharnais took a pass from Max Pacioretty while crossing the blue-line to start the play, fanned on the initial shot, but recovered to score his sixth goal of the year, on the backhand. The fan on the first shot forced Thomas out of position for the second. "I tried staying with the puck, to get any kind of shot I could," said Desharnais. "Usually the goaltender will be well positioned there. He was a little off. I know he wasnt where he was supposed to be. I tried bringing it back on my backhand, and (Thomas) was already on the ground." Montreal gained momentum after the goal, outshooting Florida 9-0 over the next 10 minutes. But it was the Panthers that equalized against the run of play. Bergenheim beat Price at 17:09 with a backhand goal similar to Desharnaiss earlier shot. Rookie Aleksander Barkov had an assist on the goal, his team-leading 15th of the year, to extend his point streak to six games -- the longest point streak by a rookie in Panthers history. Bergenheim almost gave the Panthers the lead a minute later, but his shot rang off the crossbar. The win was Montreals first against Florida this season. The Panthers beat the Habs twice last month -- a 4-1 victory in Florida, and a 2-1 win at the Bell Centre. "We generated a lot of chances, but nothing went in," said Tomas Fleischmann. "We won our last two games against them, and we felt that we could get the points tonight too. "Tonight they were fresh, and you could feel they were a different team than before. We expected that. But it took us a little longer to get adjusted to it. We felt like we could get the points tonight." The Panthers and Canadiens meet for the fourth and final time this season on March 29 in Sunrise, Fla. Notes: Ryan White missed the game due to an upper-body injury sustained on Thursday against the Dallas Stars. He is expected to be out two weeks. a Pacioretty finished the game with nine shots on net. a Hockey Canada will announce its Olympic roster on Tuesday. Montreals Price and defenceman P.K. Subban are expected to make the cut. a The Canadiens head to Philadelphia to face the Flyers on Wednesday. Austin Gomber . -- New York Yankees centre fielder Jacoby Ellsbury was sent for an MRI Thursday of his ailing right calf, which was negative. Custom Ozzie Smith Jersey . JOHNS, N. http://www.custommlbcardinalsjersey.com/custom-tyler-webb-jersey-large-1011q.html .com) - The St. Albert Pujols . She was 30. The former British No. 1 died peacefully surrounded by family and friends, the Womens Tennis Association said on its website. The Kyiv-born Baltacha, who represented Britain at the 2012 London Olympics, was diagnosed with the illness in January, two months after retiring from tennis and only weeks after she married her long-time coach Nino Severino. Ted Simmons . "Back in 2011, when they announced that the game was coming here, we knew that it was going to be pretty important that we had a good year and hopefully could get into it, let alone win it, so I felt some pressure obviously within for sure," Taman said Monday, less than 24 hours after the Riders won the championship.CLEVELAND -- The Raptors arent officially in the NBA playoffs. They dont look ready for them, either. Dion Waiters scored 24 points, Luol Deng added 19 and the Cleveland Cavaliers prevented Toronto from getting closer to a post-season spot with a 102-100 win over the sloppy Raptors on Tuesday night. Toronto fell behind by 21 points in the third quarter, and then battled back to take a 95-94 lead. But the Raptors fell apart in the final minutes. With their fourth loss in six games, the Raptors dropped one-half game behind Chicago for the No. 3 playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. "We gotta get back to who we are," Raptors coach Dwane Casey said in disgust. "Its easy to get up for OKC, Miami and Indiana, but the other teams are playing for something too, which is pride. That can be even more dangerous." Despite playing without All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving, who missed his fifth straight game with a strained biceps tendon, the Cavs were able to hold on and snap a five-game losing streak at home. "It was a good win by our guys," coach Mike Brown said. "Thats a playoff team. They were playing good basketball. In a game like that, maybe earlier in the season we might have lost, especially coming down the stretch when a team makes a run against us. Our guys found a way to win." Kyle Lowry scored 22 and Terrence Ross had 16 for the Raptors, who had a chance to tie it in the final seconds but guard Greivis Vasquez lost his footing and committed a turnover with 1.9 seconds left. "I was trying to spin and I lost my balance," Vasquez said. "It was just a bad play for me. It was me going to my weak hand and I lost my balance, stepped kind of weird. I turned the ball over. Ill take responsibility. Im not going to run away. Im a man. I wish I could be in that position again so we have another opportunity tomorrow (at Boston)." Toronto took a 95-94 lead on Vasquezs 3-pointer with 6:45 remaining, but the Raptors went just 1 of 9 from the floor and scored five points the rest of the way. Tristan Thompson added 15 points and 13 rebounds and Jarret Jack had 13 points for Cleveland, which kept its faint playoff hopes alive. The Cavs trail idle Atlanta by 4 1/2 games foor the No.dddddddddddd 8 playoff slot. The Raptors may be closing in on their first post-season appearance since 2008, but the Atlantic Division leaders looked out of sorts at both ends. They fought back from a big deficit, but fell apart with the game on the line. Toronto missed three free throws in the final 4:26, but still had a chance to force overtime or possibly steal their 40th win after forcing a Cleveland turnover on an errant inbounds pass with 7.8 seconds to go. But Vasquez, who finished with 16 points, drove the left side and slipped about 10 feet from the basket. As he fell, Vasquez flung the ball in desperation and it was intercepted on the right side by Deng. Vasquez remained on the floor for a few seconds grabbing his ankle before he limped off the court. "It was a handoff to Greivis to turn the corner," Casey said. "I thought he turned it pretty well and his ankle went out on him. But one play was not when we lost that game. The game was decided with the way we played in the first quarter." However, Toronto didnt execute when it needed to and lost to a Cleveland team playing for nothing more than pride. At least the Cavs overcame their own mistakes, something theyve rarely done during this disappointing season. "We just stayed with it," Waiters said. "We didnt get rattled and made plays when we needed to." Clevelands offence was clicking early on. The Cavs recorded assists on eight of their first 10 buckets, opened a 14-point lead in the first quarter and pushed their advantage to 18 in the second. Toronto made three 3-pointers -- the Raptors had eight 3s in the first half -- in a span of 1:27 to climb within 49-40, but Cleveland regrouped and led 59-45 at halftime. NOTES: The Cavs are 12-11 since Feb. 7. ... Toronto was just 16 of 26 from the line. ... Irving rode a stationary bike on the side as the Cavs went through their morning shootaround. Afterward, Irving looked good doing some shooting drills. Brown said Irving is "closer" to returning, but its not guaranteed the third-year pro will play again this season. ... Raptors F Patrick Patterson (right ulnar collateral sprain) missed his 10th consecutive game. He was cleared to resume contact practices Monday. ' ' '