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Mikhail Grabovski was downright giddy in the Toronto Maple Leafs dressing room this morning.

He couldn't have picked a better time to be on a roll. The 24-year-old Russian was hours away from facing the team that discarded him last summer, the Montreal Canadiens, and fellow countryman Igor Larionov was in the Air Canada Centre.

After a couple of interview scrums in broken English with reporters this morning, the mischievous Grabovski startled the horde of players and reporters in the main dressing room by cranking the stereo full blast and then sneaking down the hallway to the showers like nothing happened.

This prank got a chuckle from teammates, and they appreciated his play even more in the game when he scored a goal and set up another in the Leafs 6-3 win over the Canadiens. Grabovski was flying all game, and drew the ire of two former teammates, Saku Koivu and Sergei Kostitsyn, with altercations late in the game.

With Alexei Ponikarovsky handling the interpreter duties for Grabovski, the latter didn't want to comment on the words exchanged between him and his former teammates.

"He said that [Koivu] gave him some special advice," Ponikarovsky said.

Grabovski didn't smile, but the line got some laughs in a postgame gathering with reporters.

(Former Maple Leaf Joe Nieuwendyk, now Toronto's special assistant to the general manager, also made a trip to the dressing room after the game Saturday night to acknowledge the forward's performance with a pat on the back and a "Well done, boy.")

Grabovski now has six goals and two assists in his last four games after checking in with only a goal and an assist in his first 11 games in a Leafs sweater.

"He has a lot of chemistry right now with his linemates [Nikolai Kulemin and Niklas Hagman]," Toronto coach Ron Wilson said. "Wait until Kulemin starts scoring."

Larionov, of course, will be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame on Monday. Wilson hoped Larionov could spare a few minutes to counsel both Grabovski and Kulemin, but the meeting never took place.

Wilson knows Larionov from when the two played against each other in Switzerland, and later when Larionov joined the Vancouver Canucks when Wilson was an assistant coach there.

Although Grabovski needs about two decades more worth of standout play to match Larionov's career, the Leafs coach felt that a chat between the two would benefit Grabovski because of their similar size. Larionov played most of his career at 5-foot-9, 170 pounds. Grabovski is generously listed at 5-foot-11, 179 pounds.

The Canadiens dealt Grabovski to the Leafs in exchange for the rights to prospect Greg Pateryn and a second-round pick. Montreal had plenty of young talent with the big club and down on the farm, and Grabovski seemed disinterested in playing a fourth-line role with the Canadiens.

He became frustrated with a lack of playing time with the Canadiens last season, and caused a stir when Montreal coach Guy Carbonneau scratched him from the lineup for a game against the Phoenix Coyotes in early March.

The Canadiens were on a western trip, and Grabovski left the team to fly ahead to Los Angeles to discuss his annoyance with his agent, Gary Greenstin. The Canadiens did not reprimand Grabovski, who played in 12 of the Canadiens' final 19 games and contributed two goals, including a game-winner against the Ottawa Senators, and seven points.

"He's always been a guy who has had a lot of talent, he just fits better here," Carbonneau said.

This season, Grabovski leads all rookies with seven goals, and although he didn't record an assist on Hagman's second power-play goal of the game midway through the second period, Grabovski beat Montreal's Tomas Plekanec on the draw to start the play.

The Leafs enjoyed a 1-0 lead after the first period and 4-3 following 40 minutes in a hard-hitting and thrilling game of fire-wagon hockey.

Toronto would end up scoring three power-play goals, including one from defenceman Pavel Kubina to put his club up by two goals early in the second period.

The victory stopped a three-game losing streak for the Leafs, who outshot their division rivals 41-21. It was the 11th consecutive game they have outshot their opponents.

The Canadiens trailed 2-0 early in the second period, but tied the game on power-play goals from Robert Lang and Plekanec. Toronto regained the lead before Montreal captain Saku Koivu tied the game at 3-3. Nike Antropov, who set up Kubina for his goal and Ponikarovsky for Toronto's sixth goal, slid in a rebound during a goal-mouth scramble to put the Leafs back in front late in the second.