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Plekanec powers Canadiens past Hurricanes

Oct 27, 2007 - 3:09 AM RALEIGH, North Carolina (Ticker) -- Tomas Plekanec provided quite a power surge for the Montreal Canadiens on Friday.

Plekanec had two goals and two assists - all on the power play - as the Canadiens scored five times with the man advantage en route to a 7-4 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes.

Winners of three straight, the Canadiens have 16 power-play tallies on 49 opportunities this season.

"I don't think we're doing anything extra than what we did last year," Plekanec said of his team's success on the power play. "We want to put the puck on net and get the rebounds and tips and just hang around the net."

Plekanec said the puck was simply bouncing the Canadiens' way during the first period.

"We were passing the puck, shooting the puck, hanging around the net to get rebounds," Plekanec said. "It paid off tonight."

After rookie Kyle Chipchura opened the scoring 3:18 into the first period with an even-strength goal, Plekanec began the power-play barrage by gathering a rebound and scoring at 8:40.

Alexei Kovalev, playing in his 1,000th career game, followed with a power-play tally from the right faceoff circle just under three minutes later.

"We try to skate and not stay still, trying to find the seams and openings," Kovalev said of his team's success with the man advantage. "We take shots from the blue line and get those rebounds, which has been really good in front of the net so far."

Kovalev, 34, joined teammates Bryan Smolinski and defenseman Roman Hamrlik in reaching the milestone this season. In doing so, the Russian also became the 222nd player to skate in 1,000 games in the NHL.

Montreal used a 5-on-3 power play to quickly double its lead. Captain Saku Koivu and defenseman Mark Streit scored 30 seconds apart to give the Canadiens a 5-1 bulge.

Canadiens coach Guy Carbonneau credited his team's ability to get the puck toward the net on Friday.

"You can pass it around for two minutes and if you don't shoot on net, nothing opens up," Carbonneau said. "Just by shooting the puck a lot, it opened up other options."

Eric Staal, who assisted on Jeff Hamilton's first-period goal, converted a penalty shot with 5:14 remaining in the second period to draw the Hurricanes within 5-2.

Plekanec's second tally resulted after defenseman Patrice Brisebois' shot missed the net entirely but bounced off the end boards and right to the center, who was stationed just to the side of the net. Plekanec slammed it home to give Montreal a 6-2 cushion with 3:40 remaining in the session.

Ray Whitney scored just over four minutes into the third, and captain Rod Brind'Amour extended his points streak to eight games by tallying with 99 seconds remaining, making it a two-goal game.

Mathieu Dandenault, however, ended the threat with an empty-netter with 51 seconds remaining.

As one would expect, Carolina coach Peter Laviolette was not pleased with his team after it surrendered five power-play goals.

"We didn't block shots, we weren't in the shot lane, we didn't try to get in the shot line," Laviolette said. "From the drop of the puck, we were late in our battles. We didn't have a lot of jump in our stride."

Cam Ward, who surrendered all five first-period goals, made 10 saves. John Grahame replaced him at the start of the second period and stopped 13 shots.

Cristobal Huet made 32 saves for Montreal.