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Kovalev lifts Canadiens past Panthers

Feb 14, 2008 - 4:47 AM SUNRISE, Florida (Ticker) -- Alexei Kovalev scored 1:43 into overtime as the Montreal Canadiens skated past the Florida Panthers, 2-1, on Wednesday.

Christopher Higgins also tallied and captain Saku Koivu recorded two assists for Montreal, which snapped a three-game losing streak.

Defenseman Steve Montador scored the lone goal for Florida, which was playing its first contest since Richard Zednik underwent emergency surgery after his carotid artery nearly was severed by the skate blade of teammate Olli Jokinen during Sunday's 5-3 loss to the Buffalo Sabres.

Kovalev provided the decisive goal during a power play, which was created when former Canadiens defenseman Jassen Cullimore was whistled for hooking.

"I didn't think it was a penalty," said Cullimore, who helped Zednik off the ice on Sunday. "I'm pretty much going to say that every time I get a penalty, especially in overtime. I thought I got a stick below his hands. The refs are human and they make mistakes, and that's the way it goes."

Stationed in the right faceoff circle, Kovalev used the screen of Florida defenseman Bryan Allen and wristed the puck past All-Star goaltender Tomas Vokoun for his 26th of the season.

"It's really frustrating because of the fact we played a pretty sound game and played the way we had to (in order) to be successful," Allen said. "We got a couple bad breaks."

Conversely, the Canadiens benefited from some good breaks.

"We had some good chances, but their goalie made some good saves early in the game," Koivu said. "Sometimes you get a little bit lucky, and we got luck on our side on the first goal. I thought we kept coming until the end, and it paid off when we got a big (goal) in overtime."

Montador opened the scoring just over 12 minutes into the contest. With Florida on the power play, Montador's blast from the blue line sailed between the pads of rookie netminder Carey Price for his fifth goal of the season.

Montreal pulled even with 7:26 remaining in the third.

After Florida won a faceoff in its own end, Vokoun came out to play the puck. But Higgins alertly tapped it past the netminder for his 18th of the season and second in as many games.

"I thought we played well," Higgins said. "It was big. We lost three in a row, and we could have lost four in a row. We knew we had to step up and get the W tonight."

Vokoun and Price both finished with 35 saves.

"(Price) played extremely well," Montreal coach Guy Carbonneau said. "He gave us what we needed in the second and third periods, even though we made mistakes that made us lose good chances."