BOSTON — Patrice Brisebois snapped a scoreless tie late in the second period, rookie Carey Price posted his first playoff shutout and the Montreal Canadiens moved within one game of advancing with a 1-0 win over the Boston Bruins on Tuesday night.

The Canadiens, the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, lead the best-of-seven, first-round series 3-1.

The teams played evenly for much of the hard-hitting, fast-paced game until Brisebois scored on a power play with 42 seconds left in the second period.

Carey, the fifth overall pick in the 2005 draft, stopped 27 shots.

Sharks 3, Flames 2

CALGARY, Albert — Joe Thornton scored with just 9.4 seconds left in regulation to help San Jose even the first-round series.

Thornton tipped Douglas Murray’s shot from the point past Flames goalie Miikka Kiprusoff to win a game the Sharks trailed twice.

The Flames set a franchise low for shots on goal in a playoff game, mustering just 10 against the Sharks’ Evgeni Nabokov. The previous low was 15.

Flyers 6, Capitals 3

PHILADELPHIA — Danny Briere has played more like the top player in the league than likely MVP Alex Ovechkin, scoring two more goals with an assist, helping Philadelphia take a 2-1 series lead.

The Flyers scored three goals in a 2:33 span in the first period. Briere scored first, and after Eric Fehr quickly tied the game with his first playoff goal, Scottie Hartnell and Sami Kapanen scored 17 seconds apart to give Philadelphia a 3-1 lead.

Ducks 4, Stars 2

DALLAS — Chris Pronger scored two power-play goals after assisting on Anaheim’s first goal, and the Ducks cut their series deficit to 2-1.

Dallas lost for the seventh time in its last eight home playoff games and missed a chance to take a commanding 3-0 series lead in the first-round Western Conference playoff series.

Todd Marchant, Ryan Getzlaf and Pronger scored three goals on four shots in the first 141⁄2 minutes.

Avalanche 5, Wild 1

DENVER — Jose Theodore stopped 24 of 25 shots and Colorado used a three-goal first-period to rout Minnesota and tie the first-round playoff series at two games each.

The first three games of the series — as well as the last two when these two teams met in the 2003 playoffs — all went into overtime and ended in 3-2 scores.

Minnesota collected an astounding 111 minutes of penalty time, 24 by Derek Boogaard, who was ejected, and 35 by Stephane Veilleux, who received a 10-minute misconduct that was assessed at game’s end. Colorado collected 43 minutes of penalty time.