Montreal stays alive with rout of Tampa Bay

TAMPA, Fla. — Carey Price stopped 22 shots, Max Pacioretty had a goal and two assists, and the Montreal Canadiens beat the Tampa Bay Lighting 6-2 on Thursday night to stay alive in their second-round playoff series.

Pacioretty and Andrei Markov scored in the first as the Canadiens avoided a sweep with their first victory in nine games this year against the Lightning. Game 5 is Saturday night in Montreal, where Tampa Bay won the first two games of the series.

Lightning goaltender Ben Bishop allowed three goals on 14 shots before he was pulled a little over five minutes into the second period. Bishop had 30 saves in Tampa Bay’s dramatic 2-1 victory on Wednesday night.

Price, a leading contender for NHL MVP, limited the high-scoring Lightning to power-play goals by Nikita Kucherov and Ondrej Palat. By the time Kucherov scored at12:26 of the second, the Canadiens had built a 5-0 lead.

Lightning coach Jon Cooper pulled Bishop after David Desharnais’ shot skipped off the 6-foot-7 goaltender’s glove and into the net for the 5-7 forward’s first of the playoffs. That hardly slowed the Canadiens, who scored twice in their first three shots against backup Andrei Vasilevskiy.

P.K. Subban picked up his second assist of the night on Jeff Petry’s powerplay goal.

The Suns players accused of assault entered pleas of not guilty during a routine initial court appearance Thursday in downtown Phoenix.

Marcus and Markieff Morris, 25, approached the bench side by side for their arraignments Thursday in Maricopa Country Superior Court before they were separated to have their cases addressed individually.

The twins were scheduled to appear in court June 30 for their initial pretrial conference.

The Morris brothers’ mother, Angel, and their high school coach, Dan Brinkley, attended the court appearance, along with Suns senior vice president for communications and public affairs Maria Baier.

“Right now, we have no comment,” Markieff said upon leaving the courthouse with Marcus after each twin was granted a personal recognizance bond.

The Suns players were each indicted in April on two felony accounts of aggravated assault, months after a man who said he was a longtime family friend told police that the Morris twins attacked him at a Phoenix recreation center.

The assault occurred in January at the Nina Mason Pulliam Recreation & Sports Complex near 15th Avenue and Colter Street, where the victim, Erik Hood, and a woman had been watching a basketball game, records show. The Morrises also attended that basketball tournament, where a club that they sponsor was playing.

Hood, 36, told investigators he and the woman were leaving the facility when they were accosted by a 25-yearold man at the game with the Morris twins, the report said.

During the confrontation, someone punched Hood in the back of the head, and Hood tried to flee, the report said.

On Thursday, Phoenix police released evidence that included a phone