Tucker ignites Leafs

Montreal's Sergei Kostitsyn (right) gets a first-period facial massage from Toronto defenseman Hal Gill. (Paul Chiasson/Associated Press)

The Toronto Maple Leafs regrouped to put their worst loss of the season behind them while sticking it to their longtime rival.

Darcy Tucker scored his second goal of the game into an empty net, Vesa Toskala made 34 saves, and Toronto had three straight goals for a 4-2 victory over the Canadiens last night in Montreal.

Kris Newbury and Kyle Wellwood also scored for the Maple Leafs, who were 1-3-1 in their previous five games.

Toronto scored three straight goals after falling behind, 1-0, midway through the first period to bounce back from Tuesday's 8-0 loss to Florida.

"I just think we played hard as a group tonight and Vesa played great in nets for us," Tucker said.

Tomas Plekanec scored his 20th goal to tie his career high, and Alex Kovalev got his 25th for Montreal.

"Any time Montreal and Toronto play it seems it doesn't matter where the teams are in the standings, it's a playoff type of atmosphere and you can feel it in the dressing room," Maple Leafs captain Mats Sundin said. "I think for us the big thing was we were embarrassed at home against Florida and we wanted to make sure we showed people we're a better team than that, and I thought we came back and showed some character."

Tucker, who got his eighth goal with 29 seconds remaining to put the game away, scored 1:24 into the second to give Toronto its first lead at 2-1. Wellwood made it 3-1 with a power-play goal late in the period.

Penguins 3, Islanders 2 - Ryan Whitney had two goals and Kris Letang scored the winner with 3:39 to play as host Pittsburgh handed New York its sixth consecutive loss.

Evgeni Malkin had three assists and Ryan Malone also scored for the Penguins, who have gained at least a point in four of their last five and tied Philadelphia for first place in the Atlantic Division.

Mike Comrie had two goals and Frederick Meyer two assists for the Islanders, who scored more than two goals for the first time in six games.

Kings 5, Red Wings 3 - Brad Stuart scored the go-ahead goal at 6:15 of the third period and Los Angeles rallied from a two-goal deficit to beat host Detroit.

The Red Wings had a chance to win their ninth straight game, equaling a franchise record. They seemed to be set up to do it when Henrik Zetterberg scored his second goal to put them ahead, 3-1, at 13:05 of the second.

But Los Angeles scored on four of its first eight shots in the third against Chris Osgood (20 saves).

Senators 5, Panthers 4 - Dany Heatley had two goals and an assist in his return from a shoulder injury to propel host Ottawa.

Christoph Schubert, Joe Corvo, and Chris Phillips also scored for the Senators, who went 3-8-0 with Heatley out with a separated shoulder. Jason Spezza had three assists and Wade Redden had two.

Ducks 4, Rangers 1 - Corey Perry and Chris Kunitz scored 1:27 apart to break open a tight game in the second period, carrying Anaheim over New York at Madison Square Garden.

Mathieu Schneider staked the Ducks to a lead in the first period before Ryan Callahan tied it for the Rangers.

Canucks 2, Thrashers 1 - Daniel Sedin and Alex Burrows scored third-period goals to lift visiting Vancouver past Atlanta.

Dallas 1, Minnesota 0 - Mike Smith stopped 25 shots, Niklas Hagman scored early in the third period, and Dallas held off host Minnesota.

Lightning 2, Predators 1 - Vaclav Prospal scored at 58 seconds of overtime to give Tampa Bay its sixth straight road victory.

Blackhawks 3, Flames 1 - Nikolai Khabibulin made 26 saves and Duncan Keith, Patrick Sharp, and Yanic Perreault notched goals to power Chicago at Calgary.

Blue Jackets 2, Coyotes 1 - Jason Chimera and Nikolai Zherdev scored early in the first period and Columbus held off host Phoenix.