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Latendresse scores twice as Canadiens defeat Islanders

Mar 14, 2007 - 4:52 AM MONTREAL (Ticker) -- Rookie Guillaume Latendresse and the Montreal Canadiens took advantage of Rick DiPietro's misfortune.

Latendresse scored twice and Chris Higgins scored the winning goal as the Canadiens rallied from a pair of deficits to post a 5-3 victory over the New York Islanders.

DiPietro was injured with 4:19 left in the first period, when he collided with Montreal's Steve Begin while attempting to get to a loose puck just inside his own blue line. Begin's skate appeared to hit the head of DiPietro, who left the game and did not return.

"Right now, we are going to wait until Wednesday to get our doctor's opinion on the seriousness of it and the length of time it will be," Islanders coach Ted Nolan said. "He's back from the hospital now and looks pretty good, so before we speculate on how bad it is or how little (time) it is, we'll have to wait and see.

"He was a little groggy. That was quite a hit he took, but he seems OK now. We'll give it 24 hours, get him re-evaluated by our doctors and go from there."

DiPietro was making his career-high 18th straight start and entered with a 6-1-2 record in his previous nine contests.

"Obviously, it hurts the hockey club when he's playing as well as he has, and you rally around a great goaltender," Islanders left wing Ryan Smyth said. "It was an unfortunate thing, but he'll come out of it, and hopefully, we can get him back sooner than later."

Mike Dunham replaced DiPietro and stopped the first 10 shots he faced as the Islanders built a 2-0 lead. However, Latendresse tallied at 6:54 of the second, roofing a shot over Dunham's glove to halve the deficit, and Michael Ryder scored a power-play goal just under six minutes later to forge a tie.

Defenseman Marc-Andre Bergeron put New York back in front with less than five minutes to go in the second, but Latendresse completed his second multi-goal game of the season 8 1/2 minutes into the third to knot the contest at 3-3. The 19-year-old, who also scored twice against Ottawa on November 13, received a pass from Tomas Plekanec and beat Dunham from the slot for his 15th goal of the season.

Latendresse immediately celebrated, but play continued as the referees did not signal a goal. But a video review confirmed the puck hit the bar in the back of the net before bouncing out.

"I was pretty sure (it went in) because when it hits the post, it makes a harder sound, so I was pretty sure it was in," Latendresse said.

Higgins snapped the tie just under three minutes later, when he took Andrei Kostitsyn's pass from behind the net and fired the puck past Dunham from the doorstep with 8:34 remaining.

"(Kostitsyn) just flipped it out front and no one was covering me, and I was able to beat (Dunham) on the far side before he could get over," said Higgins, a Long Island native.

Plekanec also scored and Kostitsyn collected three assists for the Canadiens (35-30-6), who climbed within two points of the eighth and final playoff berth in the Eastern Conference.

"It was huge. (The Islanders) were four points ahead of us, now it's only two," Latendresse said. "They have a game in hand on us, but with 10 games left, anything we can grab right now is pretty vital for us."

Captain Alexei Yashin netted his first goal since January 16 and Smyth scored on a penalty shot for the Islanders (34-25-10), who are tied with the Carolina Hurricanes (35-28-8) for seventh place in the East.

Smyth was awarded a penalty shot at 1:09 of the second period after being pulled down by defenseman Sheldon Souray in the slot during a breakaway. The newly acquired star converted the chance when he deked David Aebischer and slid the puck between the goaltender's pads.

Smyth has succeeded on three of his four career penalty-shot attempts.

Dunham made 27 saves in his first appearance since stopping 30 shots in a 5-2 win over Atlanta on February 1.