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Cammalleri posts 4 points, Canadiens blank Rangers

Jan 24, 2010 - 4:38 AM MONTREAL(AP) -- Mike Cammalleri has kept the official scorer busy when the Montreal Canadiens have faced the New York Rangers this season.

Cammalleri had four points, including two of Montreal's four second-period goals, and Jaroslav Halak recorded his third shutout in the Canadiens' 6-0 win over the Rangers on Saturday night.

Cammalleri, who leads Montreal with 26 goals, also had an assist in the second. Maxim Lapierre and Benoit Pouliot also scored in the period as the Canadiens matched a season high for goals in a frame.

"I love New York City, it's one of my favorite places, so maybe I get excited about scoring against the Rangers," said Cammalleri, who has seven goals against New York - including a hat trick in a 5-4 win on Oct. 24 - and nine points in three meetings this season.

Former Rangers forward Scott Gomez scored in the first, and Cammalleri assisted on Tomas Plekanec's goal midway through the third that gave Montreal its highest scoring game of the season.

"It was nice to get a win like that in front of our fans," Canadiens coach Jacques Martin said. "They deserved it."

The Rangers were shut out for the second straight game and for the fourth time in seven contests.

"I think we beat ourselves a couple of times in where we have the puck, get a goal scored on just an icing play, but our spinning out in front of our net hurt us on a couple of situations there," Rangers coach John Tortorella said. "But I'm not going to dissect the game here right now. There are some things we need to correct."

Halak stopped 32 shots one night after turning aside 31 in a 3-1 win at New Jersey. It was his seventh career NHL shutout.

"It's great to get goal support like tonight," Halak said. "That second period was amazing. We scored four in seven minutes and we didn't give them many chances."

Henrik Lundqvist stopped 11 of 15 shots and was chased from the Rangers' net after Cammalleri scored his second goal at 6:17 of the second period. It was Montreal's third score in a span of 3:42.

"It's weird when they had that six- or seven-minute run there where the puck was just bouncing everywhere," Lundqvist said. "They just found ways to score. That's something we've been missing that couple of games, a couple of lucky bounces, but we have to work for it before we can turn it around."

Matt Zaba took over for Lundqvist and made 14 saves in his NHL debut for New York, which lost 2-0 at Philadelphia on Thursday.

Canadiens defenseman Ryan O'Byrne took an extra roughing minor for his lengthy fight with New York's Aaron Voros 12:19 into the third.

"What a fight!" Cammalleri said. "I thought it was one of the better fights of the year - a face-punching contest."

O'Byrne acknowledged that he wanted to watch it, too.

"I just want to see it on You Tube," he said.

The Rangers have been outscored 8-0 in their two latest losses after winning their previous two by a combined score of 14-4. New York scored a season-high eight goals against Tampa Bay on Tuesday following a 6-2 win over the Canadiens at home on Sunday in which the Rangers rallied from a 2-0 deficit.

There would be no comeback Saturday.

Montreal scored its first two goals during 4-on-4 play, including Gomez's seventh of the season 9:05 in. It came 5 seconds after Voros was called for charging during a delayed-penalty call against Montreal's Roman Hamrlik.

Jaroslav Spacek assisted on both of the Canadiens' first two goals. The Czech defenseman stripped the puck off New York defenseman Michael Del Zotto along the boards and set up Cammalleri, who put a wrist shot into the top right corner 2:35 into the second to extend his goal streak to four games and increase Montreal's lead to 2-0.

Lapierre, who had gone 22 games without a point and hadn't scored since Nov. 24, got a bit of help from Lundqvist at 4:37 for his first goal in 29 games. Lapierre batted a rebound of Mathieu Darche's shot out of the air and off Lundqvist's right pad.

Cammalleri ended Lundqvist's night at 6:17 when he scored his fifth goal in six games. He earned his third point of the period as Montreal increased its lead to 5-0.

Pouliot deflected Cammalleri's sharp cross-ice feed past Zaba for a power-play goal at 10:59.

Plekanec, who assisted on Cammalleri's second goal, scored on a 5-on-3 advantage 9:28 into the third.

NOTES: Zaba had dressed as a backup three times this season, including Thursday's loss. He was 3-4-1 with a 3.45 goals-against-average in 12 games this season with Hartford of the AHL. Zaba has been sharing backup duties with Chad Johnson. ... Canadiens D Paul Mara, formerly of the Rangers, was sidelined by an upper body injury sustained Friday.