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Habs edge Bruins, win fifth straight

Sat 13th, March 2010

Montreal, QC (Sports Network) - Sergei Kostitsyn scored a pair of goals and Jaroslav Halak stopped 21 shots, as Montreal edged Boston, 3-2, at Bell Centre.

Andrei Markov netted the other goal for the Canadiens, who won their fifth straight game and pulled into a tie for sixth place in the Eastern Conference with Philadelphia.

Halak posted his 22nd victory of the season and has won each of his last four starts.

"First of all, our guys did a great job in front of me," Halak said. "For two periods, they had virtually no shots at all. It wasn't easy in the last four minutes, but the guys didn't give up many shots."

Blake Wheeler and Milan Lucic tallied for the Bruins, losers in three of their last four. Tuukka Rask allowed three goals on 27 shots in defeat.

The Habs went up 3-1 at 1:41 of the third period, when a dump-in by Hal Gill to the right of the Bruins' net was misplayed in front by both Rask and a Boston defenseman. Kostitsyn, who was gliding through the slot, shoveled the loose puck into the open net.

Lucic did bring the Bruins back within a goal on a screen shot from the low slot at 11:46 after circling from the right wing into the slot, but the visitors did not solve Halak further.

Markov put the Canadiens on the board when his floater from the point on a power play hit a Bruin in the slot and changed direction at 6:02.

Montreal went up 2-0 with 40 seconds left in the period, as Markov skated behind the net and dished in front for a successful tip by Kostitsyn.

Wheeler cut Boston's deficit in half 1:12 into the second period, but Halak halted the other four Bruins shots in the frame to keep it a one-goal contest.

"We had a slow start, no question about that, we came out so sluggishly," said Bruins captain Zdeno Chara. "The whole first period put us behind by a margin we find hard to come back from, but even so we battled hard."

Game Notes

Montreal won five of the six meetings this season...The Canadiens play in Manhattan against the Rangers on Tuesday, and the Bruins travel to New Jersey on Monday.