MONTREAL — Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals, and maybe even Montreal's inability to score more goals in a dominant second period, drove Canadiens goalie Carey Price to a couple of piques of frustration.

Ovechkin scored his second goal of the game with 8:51 left, sending Washington to a 6-3 victory last night and a 3-1 lead in the Eastern Conference series.

Ovechkin opened the scoring at 8:10 of the first period with the Capitals' first power-play goal of the series. Mike Knuble tied it at 2 with Washington's second short-handed goal in two games with 6.3 seconds left in the second.

Boyd Gordon, who returned to the lineup to score a key short-handed goal in Game 3 after being a healthy scratch, set up Knuble on a 2-on-1 to draw the Capitals even despite being outshot 33-18 to that point.

"I think it was a pretty big goal," Ovechkin said. "Again, we played great short-handed and Gordo, what can I say about him? He's a hard-working guy and when he makes a play like this it means a lot for our team."

Ovechkin added his second of the game and fourth in three games when he cut past defenseman Hal Gill and put Washington up 3-2 with a shot past Price from the slot.

Jason Chimera made it 4-2 52 seconds later. The Capitals got empty-net goals from Knuble with 2:27 left and Nicklas Backstrom with 10.1 seconds remaining.

Price stopped 32 shots in his first start of the series for Montreal. Price, who replaced Jaroslav Halak in the second period Monday, was penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct following Chimera's goal. The Canadiens goalie fired a puck toward the Capitals players celebrating along the boards, striking defenseman Jeff Schultz in the backside.

"It was frustration," Price said. "It's not a good move, but let 'em know that you're there. I didn't mean to actually hit him but it's over."

BRUINS 3, SABRES 1

BOSTON — Miroslav Satan scored on a power play at 7:41 of the second overtime to lift Boston over Buffalo for a 3-1 lead in the first-round playoff series.

The Bruins got the power play in the second extra period when Buffalo's Drew Stafford was caught on the ice as a sixth skater. Satan got a pass from Michael Ryder in front of the net and put it past Ryan Miller.

"Finally, it's over," said an exhausted Satan, who was stopped by Olympic MVP Ryan Miller in the first overtime on what seemed like such a sure goal that the scoreboard operator even sounded the horn. "We have a 3-1 lead, so it's a little more breathing space, but the whole series has been good hockey from both sides and great goaltending, and we know that's not going to change."

CANUCKS 6, KINGS 4

LOS ANGELES — Henrik Sedin scored the go-ahead goal with 2:52 to play, and Vancouver scored four times in a wild third period to even the first-round series with Los Angeles at 2-all.

Mikael Samuelsson, Sami Salo and Ryan Kesler also scored in the final 12:31 for the third-seeded Canucks, who rallied from three one-goal deficits while standing on the brink of a 3-1 series deficit.

"We knew what we had to do, and we didn't need the coach or the fans to tell us," Sedin said. "If this had been a couple of years ago, we would have started cheating up the ice, given up some breakaways, and it would have been over. We're a better team than that now."