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Tuesday, Oct. 10 7:30pm ET
Home ice ignites Montreal attack | |||||
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MONTREAL (AP) -- The Montreal Canadiens didn't want to dig themselves too deep a hole to start the season. Saku Koivu and Patrice Brisebois scored power-play goals in the second period and Benoit Brunet scored twice to make sure they wouldn't lose again as Montreal earned a 5-2 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night in the Canadiens' 91st home opener. Brisebois also had three assists for a career-best four-point game. "I was very nervous at the start of the game," Brisebois said. "The last thing we wanted to do was go 0-3. We had to win tonight. We knew coming into the game we had to play desperate hockey." Craig Darby also scored for the Canadiens, who were outscored 10-4 in losing their first two games of the season to New Jersey and Toronto. "We had a bad start in New Jersey -- I think we played pretty well in Toronto, but we didn't get the win," Brunet said. "The power play played well. I think that was the key to us winning tonight -- the power play did its job. That's going to win us games this year." Edmonton's Chad Kilger scored his first goal of the season just over five minutes into the second. Daniel Cleary scored the Oilers' second goal with 4:15 left in the third. Canadiens goalie Jeff Hackett, making his third straight start, stopped 16 shots. "They stuck with it, they played well tonight," Edmonton forward Bill Guerin said. "We knew they were going to be on an emotional high, and they definitely were. They played a solid game tonight." A crowd of 20,108 was on hand at the Molson Centre, more than one thousand fans below the four-year old arena's capacity. "I think we've got to win our fans back," Brunet said. "We had two seasons that were tough, but we've got an exciting team on the ice this year. We don't have the superstars but we've got some stars that have something to prove." Darby opened the scoring 14:18 into the first when he finished off a give-and-go play with Patrice Poulin. Darby tapped home Poulin's return pass beyond Oilers goalie Tommy Salo's stick side for his first goal of the season. Koivu wristed a shot past Salo at 2:22 of the second -- with Todd Marchant in the penalty box -- for his second goal to put Montreal ahead 2-0. "Saku didn't have a great season last year and he's played really well so far," Brunet said. "I think he wants to show everyone what he can do. That's the way we're going to bring fans back, by winning games." Kilger drew Edmonton within one at 2-1 less than three minutes later. Brisebois, who also had three assists, restored the Canadiens' two-goal lead 13:38 into the second with a slap shot from the top of the left-wing circle that just beat Salo between the pads. Brunet put Montreal ahead 4-1 with his first goal at 8:03 of the third before Cleary drew the Oilers within two on his first of the season at 15:45. Brunet added his second goal of the period into an empty net with 17 seconds left. Game notesA tribute to Canadiens legend Maurice (Rocket) Richard, who died in May at 79, was included in a 10-minute ceremony to mark the home opener. ... Brisebois has five career three-point games, the last on April 6 against Tampa Bay. ... Dainius Zubrus returned from a rib injury to play his first game of the season for Montreal. ... Oilers winger Brad Norton served the last of his three-game suspension incurred in Edmonton's final preseason game. ... The Oilers went 0-for-3 on the power play and have scored just once in 17 opportunities this season. | ALSO SEE NHL Scoreboard Edmonton Clubhouse Montreal Clubhouse RECAPS Carolina 5 Dallas 2
Montreal 5 AUDIO/VIDEO   Craig Darby scores the easy one-timer off the turnover.avi: 1370 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1 Tommy Salo hits the ice to deny Oleg Petrov in the first period.avi: 1201 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1 | |||||