MONTREAL (AP) – Guillaume Latendresse scored late in the second period and Jaroslav Halak made 30 saves for his first NHL shutout, leading the Montreal Canadiens to a 1-0 win over the Boston Bruins on Tuesday night.

Montreal won its second in a row and tied Carolina for eighth place in the Eastern Conference. The Canadiens, who entered in a three-way tie with Toronto and the New York Islanders for ninth, have eight games remaining in a tight battle for the playoffs.

Latendresse scored his 16th goal with 1:00 remaining in the second on the only one of 32 shots to beat Boston goalie Tim Thomas.

Halak topped Thomas’ performance with his second straight win, stopping seven shots in the first, nine in the second and 14 in the third. It was his first blanking in nine games since being recalled from Hamilton of the AHL.

Latendresse slid the puck past Aaron Ward before stepping around the Bruins defenseman. The 19-year-old rookie then put a shot in over Thomas’ left shoulder, setting off a huge ovation from the sellout crowd of 21,273 as he was mobbed by teammates.

The Bruins lost their second in a row, including a 7-0 road loss to the New York Rangers on Saturday, and fell further out of the playoff picture with 73 points and only 10 games remaining.

Montreal outshot Boston 13-9 in the second, yet couldn’t solve Thomas, who caught a bit of luck on a glorious scoring chance by Steve Begin.

The Canadiens forward had a wide-open right side, and fired a shot past Thomas’ lunging attempt at a glove save. The puck struck the right post before the Bruins goalie covered it up 15:35 into the second.

Thomas got a glove on another scoring chance by Alex Kovalev moments later, but was finally beaten late in the period after Latendresse put himself in scoring position with a nifty move.

Notes: Bruins RW Glen Murray missed his sixth straight game because of a groin injury. Murray leads the Bruins with 28 goals despite missing 13 games because of injury. … Latendresse had no points in two games after scoring four goals during a three-game streak from March 8-13.

AP-ES-03-20-07 2141EDT