Malkin in the middle
MONTREAL — Evgeni Malkin continues to carry the Pittsburgh Penguins to the heights of the Eastern Conference despite Sidney Crosby's absence.
Malkin scored his 35th goal midway through the third period and got his second assist of the game on Sergei Gonchar's power-play goal moments later to help the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Montreal Canadiens 5-4 on Thursday night.
Malkin, who assisted on Ryan Whitney's goal 6:46 in to become the first player to reach 80 points this season, scored on a breakaway 10:22 into the third to tie it after Pittsburgh — which led 2-0 and 3-1 — blew a two-goal margin to fall behind 4-3.
"I've said it before, I played with him during the lockout and I knew what he was capable of," said Gonchar, who restored the Penguins' lead with his 10th goal at 10:58. "He's just playing up to his potential with more ice time and more chances and I kind of expect it from him. It's not a surprise to me."
Gonchar recorded his 600th career point in his 883rd regular-season game when the veteran defenseman's point shot got past goalie Cristobal Huet for Pittsburgh's second power-play goal of the game 15 seconds after Montreal's Alex Kovalev was sent off for interference.
"When you're in the league for a while, it happens," said Gonchar, who broke in with Washington in 1994-95 and had a brief stint with Boston at the end of the 2003-04 season before signing with Pittsburgh as a free agent in August 2005. "I was fortunate enough to play with good players in Washington and here, and fortunate enough to stay healthy throughout my career."
Dany Sabourin made 17 saves and Jarkko Ruutu and Ryan Malone also scored for the Penguins, who won their third in a row to tie New Jersey for the Atlantic Division lead with 75 points.
Michael Ryder and Roman Hamrlik scored third-period goals to put Montreal up 4-3 early in the third two nights after the Canadiens pulled off the biggest comeback in the storied franchise's history.
Saku Koivu and Chris Higgins also scored for Montreal, which overcame a 5-0 deficit Tuesday with five unanswered goals before Koivu scored in the shootout for a 6-5 win over the New York Rangers to extend their winning streak to four.
"I think at game time, going in, we thought we'd probably have to score at least six — I'm just kidding," Malone said. "We obviously respect their talent and their power play and we know if we opened up the game it was going to be a high-scoring game, and we tried to limit their chances and they still got four on us but we ended up getting the two points this time and it was nice."
The Canadiens, who also have 75 points, fell one point behind Ottawa for the Eastern Conference and Northeast Division leads.
