PITTSBURGH — Brenden Morrow hasn’t even been in Pittsburgh for a month. At the rate he is going, the veteran forward should soon feel free to run for mayor.

Morrow scored two goals for the second straight game and dropped Montreal’s P.K. Subban in a third-period fight as the Penguins moved closer to clinching the top seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs with a 6-4 victory over the Canadiens on Wednesday night.

Acquired from Dallas on March 24, Morrow’s tenure with the Penguins got off to a slow start. He didn’t score until his seventh game with his new team but has now netted five goals in eight days.

“He was absolutely flying,” Pittsburgh forward Jarome Iginla said. “It was great.”

And certainly more than enough to overcome the loss of stars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. The former NHL MVPs didn’t play as Crosby is still dealing with a broken jaw, and Malkin is nursing a lingering shoulder injury.

Their absences have allowed the aggressive moves made by Pittsburgh general manager Ray Shero the last 12 months to shine through.

Iginla, picked up just before the trade deadline last month, scored his second goal for the Penguins. Doug Murray, brought in from San Jose on March 25, scored for the first time in more than two years. And center Brandon Sutter — who came to Pittsburgh in a stunning swap last June that sent popular center Jordan Staal to Carolina — added two goals as Pittsburgh won its fifth straight without Crosby.

“I think good habits are contagious, and everyone’s kind of got a good tradition here of winning habits,” Morrow said.

Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 31 shots to earn his 22nd win of the season. Barring a collapse, the Pittsburgh will have home-ice advantage throughout the Eastern Conference playoffs. The Penguins lead the Canadiens and the Boston Bruins by nine points with less than two weeks to go in the regular season. Pittsburgh and Montreal have five games left while the Bruins have six.

The Penguins insist they are focused on each game and not the big picture. It certainly looked that way as they raced to a 4-0 lead.

Brian Gionta, Alex Galchenyuk, Gabriel Dumont and Andrei Markov scored for Montreal, but the Canadiens lost their third straight. Peter Budaj started in goal and was pulled after stopping just six of the nine shots he faced in the first period.

Carey Price relieved and allowed three goals on 20 shots, absorbing the loss. Montreal has been one of the NHL’s biggest surprises this season but has dropped four of five.