Pittsburgh Penguins' Sidney Crosby lunges for the puck during third-period NHL hockey action against the Montreal Canadiens in Montreal, Dec., 10, 2009.Graham Hughes
Pascal Dupuis broke a tie at 13:21 of the third period and the Pittsburgh Penguins ended the Montreal Canadiens's three-game winning streak with a 3-2 victory on Thursday night.
Dupuis broke in on the left side and saw his high shot hit goaltender Carey Price's glove and drop behind him into the net on the Penguins 39th shot of the game.
The crowd of 21,273 drowned the Bell Centre in boos only 1:13 later when a goal by Montreal's Scott Gomez in a goalmouth scramble was disallowed due to a quick whistle.
Sergei Gonchar also scored and assisted on a Matt Cooke goal for the Penguins (21-10-1), who ended a two-game skid.
Matt D'Agostini and Roman Hamrlik scored for Montreal (15-15-2), which was outshot 41-21 but was kept in the game by opportunistic goals and another strong performance by the penalty killers. The Canadiens killed five Pittsburgh power plays and have now killed 27 in a row over the last six games.
It was a fast-paced first period with end-to-end rushes by both clubs but only one goal, as Sidney Crosby played decoy as Gonchar sneaked in off the point to slap in a feed from Bill Guerin at 6:38.
A Montreal penalty had just ended when D'Agostini jumped onto the ice, poked the puck off Jordan Staal's stick and fired in his second goal, and first since Oct. 24, high to the stick side on Marc-Andre Fleury 10:48 into the second. It was Montreal's first shot of the period.
Hamrlik's point shot got through traffic for Montreal's fourth power-play goal in the last three games at 13:38. Marc-Andre Bergeron picked up his fourth point in three games on the goal.
Pittsburgh tied it with 2:15 left in the period as Gonchar's wrist shot changed direction off Cooke and beat Price.
Evgeni Malkin put a shot off the crossbar from the slot in the opening minute of the third.
Notes: The Canadiens recalled defenceman Yannick Weber from AHL Hamilton but didn't use him. ...Jaroslav Spacek, who hurt his right knee Tuesday in Ottawa, was able to play. ...D Paul Mara sat out with a shoulder injury. ... Montreal sent Benoit Pouliot to Hamilton for conditioning. He was acquired Nov. 23 from Minnesota for Guillaume Latendresse but has yet to play for the Canadiens. ... Alex Goligoski returned for Pittsburgh after missing 10 of the last 11 games with a groin injury. Chris Kunitz remains out with a lower body injury. ...Eric Godard played his 300th NHL game.