SUNRISE, Fla. — The new Rene Bourque is making everyone forget the old Rene Bourque.

Bourque was a disappointment after joining the Canadiens at mid-season a year ago, but he continued his solid play Thursday night as he scored the winning goal in overtime to give the Canadiens a 1-0 win over the Florida Panthers.

“It was a nice feeling,” Bourque said. “We had some chances earlier, but it was one of those games where it was hard to get any quality scoring opportunities. The guys played hard and it was good solid defensive effort.”

Bourque said the defensive tone of the game all but assured “it was one of those ugly goals that was going to get the job done” and he was right.

“It was kind of a broken 2-on-1,” said Bourque, who went to the net to redirect a pass from rookie Alex Galchenyuk. “The puck was bouncing all night, the ice was really bad; I was just was trying to come to a stop and let him come to me. I don’t even know whether I hit it out of the air or it was on the ice.”

Bourque and head coach Michel Therrien praised Galchenyuk for his role in the game-winner.

“There’s a reason why he’s playing with us and he’s only 19 years old,” Bourque said. “He’s very skilled.”

“That’s part of the learning process,” Therrien said when asked about having confidence in the youngster in overtime. “He showed a great second effort to stay with the puck going up against a very good defenceman in (Dmitry Kulikov).”

“When you’re out there in overtime, you want to create a scoring chance,” Galchenyuk said. “I entered the zone and I saw that (Bourque) was driving hard, The puck was bouncing and somehow I got it to him.”

Galchenyuk has eight points on the season, but the assist ended a five-game point drought.

“I haven’t produced as much offensively, but this is the NHL and I knew it would come if I kept working,” Galchenyuk said. “Obviously, it’s nice to be out there and have a chance to win the game.”

Carey Price made 26 saves for his first shutout of the season, but downplayed his contribution to the victory.

“The guys played well in front of me and limited their chances all game,” Price said. “They didn’t have many quality chances and that speaks a lot about our guys’ work ethic.”

There were some dicey moments early in the third and at 12:57 when Josh Gorges went off for tripping.

“They came out hard early in the third period and we just had to weather the storm,” Price said. “It was a pretty quiet game, pretty defensive and it was good to come out with the win. It seemed like both teams were willing to sit back and wait for the other team to make a mistake, and neither team made a whole lot of mistakes.”

Price has had shutouts going into the late stages of the third period in several games and said it was a relief to get, particularly in his first 0-0 game in regulation time.

“I said last week that it would be nice to close one out, and tonight I did,”

“It’s not every time we come to Florida and pick up four points,” said a pleased Therrien. “We addressed the discipline issue before the game and we were focused as a group. We played a really solid road game. We took away their time and space.

“José Theodore was great for them and gave them a chance to stay in the game,” Therrien said. “And when we lost the momentum for a few shifts in the third, Carey Price was big for us.”

Therrien was happy to see his team take only two minor penalties and even happier to see them kill off the third-period penalty to Gorges.

“The guys sacrificed themselves and blocked some shots. You could tell the guys wanted to kill that penalty.”

phickey@montrealgazette.com

Twitter: @zababes1