Canadiens 3, Thrashers 1
Roman Hamrlik and Mathieu Darche scored within seconds of each other in the first period as the Montreal Canadiens snapped a three-game losing streak with a 3-1 victory over the visiting Atlanta Thrashers on Tuesday.
Carey Price made 27 saves and Andrei Kostitsyn added an insurance tally for the Canadiens, who had been shut out in each of their last three setbacks - the franchise’s longest such streak since Oct. 1949.
Montreal snapped its goalless drought with just over seven minutes left in the first period when Hamrlik emerged from a scrum in front of the net and stuffed the puck past Ondrej Pavelec’s outstretched right skate for his fifth tally.
The Canadiens struck again 11 seconds later when the Thrashers misplayed a puck along the boards, allowing Darche to slap his ninth goal past Pavelec on the same side of the net.
Atlanta avoided a shutout when Nik Antropov took a feed from Eric Boulton on a give-and-go and tipped it past Price at the 8:35 mark of the third period.
Kostitsyn’s empty-netter with 1:20 remaining put away the game.
Pavelec finished with 28 saves.