Tanguay, Koivu combine for five points to power Habs past Coyotes

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Game Information

Arena: Bell Centre Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Referees: Wes McCauley, Brad Meier Linesmen: Steve Miller, Scott Cherrey

Attendance: 21,273 (100.0% full)

Team Stat Comparison
205	Goals	242
249	Goals Against	240
50	Power Play Goals	72
68	Power Play Goals Allowed	65
5	Shorthanded Goals	10
4	Shorthanded Goals Allowed	11
1092	Penalty Minutes	1229
13	Average Penalty Minutes	15

Scoring Summary
1ST PERIOD			PHO	MON
6:11		Alex Tanguay Assists: Saku Koivu, Guillaume Latendresse	0	1
11:17		Saku Koivu Assists: Andrei Markov	0	2
2ND PERIOD			PHO	MON
12:56		Alex Tanguay Assists: Saku Koivu, Andrei Markov	0	3
19:04		Robert Lang (Power Play) Unassisted	0	4
3RD PERIOD			PHO	MON
10:00		Shane Doan Assists: Zbynek Michalek, Steve Reinprecht	1	4

MONTREAL -- The Montreal Canadiens are enjoying the fast start to their 100th season.

Alex Tanguay scored twice and Saku Koivu had a goal and two assists to lead Montreal to a 4-1 win over the Phoenix Coyotes on Saturday night.

Carey Price made 28 saves, and Robert Lang also scored for the Canadiens, who won their fourth in a row since opening the season with a shootout loss in Buffalo.

"Winning is fun, and right now we've only lost that first one in the shootout in Buffalo so we're still at the point where we need to rack up wins and move up in the standings," Tanguay said. "Right now we're certainly having fun."

Shane Doan scored midway through the third for Phoenix, which dropped its third in a row, including a 6-3 loss in Ottawa on Friday.

"We played two of the best teams in the Eastern Conference back to back, and I know we're going to have some bumps along the way, but we've got to learn from it and get better from it," Coyotes coach Wayne Gretzky said.

Canadiens left winger Andrei Kostitsyn left the game 3:44 into the second when Montreal led 2-0. Kostitsyn was driven hard into the boards by defenseman Kurt Sauer, whose arms came up around the Montreal forward's head on the check. No penalty was called.

"I don't know if it was dirty, but they're trying to erase blows to the head, and it was definitely a blow to the head," Canadiens coach Guy Carbonneau said.

Kostitsyn, whose helmeted head banged against the glass, lay face down on the ice and was motionless for several moments.

"It seemed like he came over the blue line and he just started to lay back and I just hit him," Sauer said. "I didn't see a replay yet, nothing like that, it's never a good thing when a guy goes down like that, though."

The Canadiens' training staff rushed onto the ice and a stretcher was summoned, but the Russian forward got up and was helped off the ice. He didn't return to the game.

"I just saw him about five minutes ago -- he's doing better," Carbonneau said. "He was a little bit dizzy, so I guess the next couple of days I'm sure he's going to have to have tests and we'll know a little bit more, but right now there's not much I can tell you."

Tanguay, who scored the shootout winner in Montreal's home opener Wednesday, started the scoring 6:11 in. Left unguarded in the slot, Tanguay took Koivu's pass and beat goalie Ilya Bryzgalov for his second goal of the season.

Koivu made it 2-0 with his second when he took Andrei Markov's slap pass from the left point and scored from the right side of the net.

The Montreal captain got his third point of the game when he set up Tanguay's second goal of the night 12:56 into the second period. The game turned chippy after Sauer's hit on Kostitsyn.

Sauer declined an invitation to fight Canadiens enforcer Georges Laraque by shaking his head.

"I'm not even in his league -- not even close," said Sauer, who fought later in the period with Tom Kostopoulos.

Laraque fought Todd Fedoruk in the final seconds of the middle period, shortly after Lang scored an unassisted power-play goal at 19:04 to increase the Canadiens' lead to 4-0.

"The code is from heavyweight to heavyweight, not from lightweight -- whatever [Sauer] is -- to heavyweight," Laraque said. "He's not forced to go with a guy like me. You respect a guy who backs up his actions, if something like that happens, but at the same time you can't blame a guy if he doesn't want to answer the bell to me."

Doan, who is Price's cousin, ruined the Montreal goalie's shutout bid when he scored 10 minutes into the third.

Game notes
Coyotes LW Daniel Carcillo served the second game of his two-game suspension handed down by the NHL on Friday. ... Koivu drew even with Maurice Richard on the Canadiens' career assists list with his first point of the game. He moved ahead of Richard and took over sole possession of seventh place with his 422nd assist on Tanguay's second goal.