Mindful that the New York Islanders had played a record seven straight one-goal games, the Montreal Canadiens pumped in four.
Steve Begin tallied twice as the Canadiens cruised to a 4-1 victory over the Islanders before a crowd of 13,153 at the Nassau Coliseum on Wednesday night.
Tom Kostopoulos soars over Bryan Berard in a 4-1 Canadiens triumph.
(Frank Franklin II/Associated Press)
Christopher Higgins contributed one goal and one assist, and Tomas Plekanec capped the scoring for the Canadiens (12-6-3).
Cristobal Huet was terrific, turning aside 43 of 44 shots.
Mike Comrie notched his seventh goal this season for the Islanders (11-7-0), spoiling Huet's shutout bid with 3:50 remaining.
"A shutout is just a bonus," Huet said. "It was more important to get the win."
"They blocked shots exceptionally well and their goaltender played exceptionally well," Islanders head coach Ted Nolan said. "Sometimes, we look at what we did wrong too much and not look at what the other team did right."
Rick DiPietro, fresh off his 100th NHL win, posted 29 saves for New York.
"We didn't have a good couple of periods," he said. "And they're a good hockey club who took advantage.
"I thought we played really well in the third. But too little, too late."
"We gave them the first goal and it took a while for us to wake up," Islanders forward Mike Sillinger said.
Montreal opened the scoring 56 seconds into the contest, when Begin pounced on a turnover and beat DiPietro high to the glove side with a slapshot for his second goal of the season.
"The goalie tried to make a poke check," Begin said, "but the puck rolled back to me so slowly.
"I had time to let it rip. I always shoot high and hard in practice, so I may as well do it in a game."
Higgins made it 2-0 with a nifty goal, stickhandling by Islanders defenceman Bryan Berard and flipping a shot that rolled off DiPietro's glove and into the net for his eighth at 6:14 of the second period.
His first seven goals were scored at Montreal's Bell Centre.
"In all the seasons I have been a pro, I have had more goals on the road than at home, so this is new to me," Higgins said.
After Begin scored his second goal of the night and third overall at the 7:18 mark, Plekanec upped it to 4-0 by finishing off a pretty three-way play involving Patrice Brisebois and Alex Kovalev.
It was Plekanec's sixth, and came on the power play with 6:38 left in the period.
"We didn't make them earn their goals, the first one especially," Sillinger said. "We didn't compete as hard as we had in the past."
With files from the Canadian PressRelated
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