12th-seeded Habs move Penguins to brink of elimination

Jeff Petry’s sharp-angle goal in the third period Wednesday gave the Canadiens a 4-3 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 3 of a qualifying round series, moving Montreal ahead two games to one in the best-of-five set at Toronto.Montreal, seeded 12th and last among Eastern Conference postseason participants, pushed the fifth-seeded Penguins into an elimination game Friday.Petry, who scored in overtime in Game 1, broke a 3-3 tie and scored Montreal’s third unanswered goal at 5:33 of the third. He lifted a shot from the bottom of the left circle that went off the mask of goaltender Matt Murray, off the crossbar and in.Shea Weber added a goal and two assists, Paul Byron a goal and an assist, Jonathan Drouin a goal and Ben Chiarot two assists for the Canadiens. Carey Price made 30 saves.Patric Hornqvist, Jason Zucker and Teddy Blueger scored for the Penguins, and Murray made 27 saves.Canadiens forward Jake Evans left in the second period, bleeding after a hit by Pittsburgh’s Brandon Tanev.Montreal opened the scoring at 4:57 of the first period when Weber scored on a second rebound. The Penguins unsuccessfully challenged that the Canadiens interfered with Murray.Pittsburgh was 1-for-12 on the power play through the first two games but netted two man-advantage goals within 59 seconds.Hornqvist tied it 1-1 at 8:40 of the first when he took a pass from Evgeni Malkin and scored from a sharp angle to Price’s right.At 9:39, Zucker, at the inner edge of the right circle, one-timed a setup from Bryan Rust that went past Price’s glove for a 2-1 Penguins lead.Tanev fed Zach Aston-Reese, whose shot was stopped by Price, but Blueger followed with a shot under Price’s pads at 5:34 of the second to make it 3-1.Drouin closed it to 3-2 at 10:13 of the middle period when he went to the crease and tapped in a pass from Chiarot from the left circle.Just after a Montreal power play expired, Byron pushed the puck under Murray’s left pad at 15:50 of the second for a 3-3 tie.