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Kubina scores twice as Maple Leafs top Canadiens

Jan 28, 2007 - 4:00 AM TORONTO (Ticker) -- Pavel Kubina put the Toronto Maple Leafs in the proper frame of mind prior to a lengthy journey.

Kubina had two goals and an assist and Jeff O'Neill added a tally and set up another to lead the Maple Leafs to a 4-1 victory over their longtime rivals, the Montreal Canadiens.

Playing their final contest before a five-game road trip, the Maple Leafs snapped a three-game drought at Air Canada Centre with three power-play goals and won for the third time in four overall contests.

"I thought our special teams did a great job," Toronto captain Mats Sundin said. "We talked about it a lot. I don't think either our penalty killing or our power play has been very good the last few weeks. Tonight, we stressed that and worked on it in practice and we got some results."

After Kubina opened the scoring with 6:31 left in the first period, O'Neill beat goaltender Cristobal Huet with a one-timer from the right faceoff circle just 79 seconds later to give the Maple Leafs a 2-0 lead.

"It was a good special teams game for us," O'Neill said. "We did give up the power-play goal but our killers did a good job and our goalie was our best penalty killer tonight."

Tomas Plekanec halved the deficit for Montreal on a power play at 6:06 of the middle session when his shot from the right point deflected off Kubina's shoulder past netminder Andrew Raycroft.

However, Sundin took advantage of Montreal captain Sheldon Souray's boarding penalty to score his first goal in nine games and 19th of the season with 2:42 left in the second period for a 3-1 lead.

"Over the last 50 games, we've shown we're a better team than them," Souray said. "And every time we play them, they get emotionally ready they pick their game up another gear or two and we don't match it."

Kubina completed his first multi-goal game of the campaign at 3:29 of the third period with a slap shot from just inside the blue line past Huet's right pad.

"It's nice to get two goals but I care about the winning and (getting) into the playoffs," Kubina said.

Matt Stajan collected two assists and Raycroft made 27 saves for the Maple Leafs, who are 3-0-2 against the Canadiens this season.

"I don't think there's a really good explanation for (our success against Montreal)," Raycroft said. "They're obviously a really good team we've just been able to have their number a little bit."

Toronto is 12-9-3 on the road this season and opens its five-game trip Tuesday at Carolina before visiting the New York Rangers the following night.

"(It's a) big trip for us," Sundin said. "We know the position we're in right now. We need to win hockey games. We're going to have two tough opponents to start it off."

Huet stopped 25 shots for Montreal, which has lost four of its last six contests.

"There (are) still 32 games left in the season (and) we know it's going to be like this till the end," Canadiens coach Guy Carboneau said. "We're not going to panic because we lost. I'm not happy about it. I'm sure they're not happy. We know we have to be better but we still have a lot of games left."