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Fourth line leads Canadiens to victory

Dec 5, 2008 - 5:03 AM MONTREAL (Ticker) -- A trio the New York Rangers least expected to cause damage did just that.

The fourth line of Steve Begin, Maxim Lapierre and enforcer Georges Laraque combined for two goals and four assists as the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday rolled to a 6-2 triumph over the Rangers.

Rookie Matt D'Agostini added a goal and an assist and Andrei Kostitsyn, Alex Tanguay and Robert Lang also scored for Montreal, which has won three in a row and four of five.

"We haven't won three games in a row since the beginning of the year, so it was really important in the standings," Lapierre said. "Now we're only three points behind the Rangers, and they're first in our conference."

Defenseman Andrei Markov notched a pair of assists and Carey Price made 18 saves for the Canadiens, who improved to 3-0-2 in their last five home contests.

"We're doing the little details," Begin said. "That's something we weren't doing lately. Now we're doing it. We went out there and played 60 minutes. That's what we wanted to do, and we did it."

Markus Naslund and Nigel Dawes scored for New York, which had won two straight on the road.

"We were OK to start, but as the game went on, we became progressively independent of the job that needed to be done," Rangers coach Tom Renney said. "We cherish these opportunities to step up with a big team like Montreal and respond to it. We weren't able to do that tonight."

After Kostitsyn opened the scoring at 9:52 of the first period, extending his goal-scoring streak to three games, Begin gave Montreal a 2-0 lead just 55 seconds later with his fourth tally of the season.

Racing down the right wing for a loose puck, Begin gained possession and waited for a defender to slide by before wristing it past goaltender Henrik Lundqvist at 10:47. Laraque notched the secondary assist on the goal for his first point of the season.

"If you look at my stats, I do it occasionally. It's not like it's a miracle," Laraque said of getting on the scoresheet. "It's just that it's been a year of frustration, being hurt a lot of the time. Now we're getting on a roll. The fourth line is contributing and playing well defensively, and that's what you want."

Tanguay made it 3-0 with 2:23 left in the session, firing the puck into the net from along the end line on the right side.

The Canadiens increased the advantage to four just 3:35 into the middle period, when Lapierre buried a rebound from the doorstep for his fourth tally. Laraque also helped set up the play, capping his third career two-assist effort.

"I think it was a big night for everybody," Lapierre said. "We played really, really hard and were involved and stayed in the system all game. When we play simple, and good defensively, we're going to have some scoring chances against the other side."

Montreal coach Guy Carbonneau was impressed with the performance of his fourth line.

"They're playing with a lot of confidence right now," he said. "They're playing better defensively than they were at the beginning of the year, and because of that, they don't spend as much time in our zone.

"You try to match them against the fourth line (of the other team), but sometimes that doesn't happen, like tonight. They ended up with (Scott) Gomez, Naslund and (Nikolai) Zherdev. That's not really the matchup I wanted, but they ended up scoring goals."

Gomez and Naslund both posted minus-4 ratings for the Rangers.

"I'll take the brunt of the criticism," Gomez said. "To go minus-4 is not good. ... It was just an old-fashioned (butt) whipping out there, and we have to learn from it. ... They just beat us at every aspect of the game."

"One of the differences in this game was that they came with speed and were pushing us back while we stood around and tried to look for options and plays," Naslund added. "It shows that you have to play with passion and push teams back."

Naslund converted a power-play chance with just under seven minutes remaining and Dawes beat Price from the left faceoff circle with 77 seconds to go, halving the deficit. But just 49 seconds into the third, Markov made a pass from the left faceoff dot to Lang, who redirected the puck past Lundqvist from the doorstep to give Montreal a 5-2 cushion.

D'Agostini capped the scoring with 50 seconds left, beating Lundqvist - who made 33 saves - to the stick side with a wrist shot from the top of the slot for his second career goal.

"The difference from when we are playing our best during the game and we're not is too great," Lundqvist said. "They made us pay."