With a sold-out home crowd braced for the possibility of witnessing Montreal’s worst start in nearly 70 years, a couple of newcomers gave Canadiens’ fans an opportunity to celebrate a victory.
Brian Gionta and Scott Gomez scored in the shootout, and Montreal snapped a five-game losing streak with a 2-1 win over the Atlanta Thrashers last night.
Gionta, who also scored late in the first period, sealed the win with a backhander past Ondrej Pavelec on Montreal’s third attempt of the shootout.
“It’s every little kid’s dream,’’ said Gionta, who left the New Jersey Devils as a free agent to sign a five-year, $25 million contract with the Canadiens. “You’ve got 22,000 people screaming and you’re in the spotlight. Those are the things you love as a player.’’
Gomez had put a shot from the slot past the Atlanta goalie’s glove into the right side of the net.
Atlanta’s Vyacheslav Kozlov got a boarding major and a game misconduct for his check from behind on Gomez 2:25 into overtime.
“I won’t give him the satisfaction,’’ Gomez said when asked to comment about the hit. “We got the two points so I could care less what happens.’’
Jaroslav Halak stopped Ilya Kovalchuk and Rich Peverley on the Thrashers’ first two attempts.
The Canadiens (3-5) avoided their worst start since 1940, when they were 1-10-1. Montreal was 2-5-1 in 1956 and 1980.
“I thought it was big,’’ Gionta said. “We showed a lot of staying power there. When you lose five in a row and a team ties it up in the third period like that it could kill your confidence, but I thought we did a good job of sticking with it.’’
Pavelec stopped 34 shots for Atlanta (4-1-1), which tied its best start since joining the NHL in 1999.
Penguins 5, Blues 1 - Matt Cooke had a goal and an assist, four other Pittsburgh players scored, and the host Penguins earned their sixth straight win.
Kris Letang had two assists, and Tyler Kennedy, Evgeni Malkin, Ruslan Fedotenko, and Alex Goligoski had goals. Only five of Pittsburgh’s 18 skaters failed to record a point in the win that pushed the Penguins’ record to an NHL-best 8-1.
Paul Kariya scored for the Blues.
The Penguins took a season-high 43 shots and controlled play for much of the game.
Flames 6, Blue Jackets 3 - Jarome Iginla scored once and added a pair of assists to lead Calgary past visiting Columbus.
Iginla played his second consecutive game on a line centered by Craig Conroy, and the reunited linemates combined to set up first-period goals by Curtis Glencross and Jay Bouwmeester as Calgary took a 3-1 lead.
Daymond Langkow, Dion Phaneuf, and Fredrik Sjostrom also scored for the Flames.
