MONTREAL -- Rookie Alexander Perezhogin's ability to
thrive on special teams put a damper on Brian Leetch's historic
night.
Perezhogin snapped a tie with a power-play goal in the third
period and added an assist to lead the Montreal Canadiens to
their first home victory of the season, a 4-3 win over the
Boston Bruins.
Perezhogin's performance stole the spotlight from Leetch, who
recorded a goal and an assist to become the seventh defenseman
in NHL history to record 1,000 points.
A first-round pick in the 2001 draft, Perezhogin took advantage
of defenseman Hal Gill's tripping penalty midway through the
third by beating goaltender Andrew Raycroft for his third goal
of the season, snapping a 3-3 tie. All three of the
22-year-old's tallies have come with the man advantage.
Hoping to avoid starting a season with three home losses for the
first time since 1938, the Canadiens tied the game just over
two minutes into the third when Mike Ribeiro scored on a tip-in
during a power play.
"I still don't think I had my greatest game today," Ribeiro
said. "We still played better than the games before (Tuesday).
"We're getting better as the games are going. (Montreal right
wing Michael) Ryder getting a goal was good for the confidence."
After opening the season with three road wins in four nights,
Montreal has split four games in the past eight days. The
Canadiens have three days off before hosting the New York
Islanders on Saturday.
"We need the rest, but sometimes the momentum is gone, so maybe
that's why we gave a good effort on the road in the (first)
three games," Canadiens right wing Alexei Kovalev said. "Me
personally, I don't like the breaks (every) two, three days.
Practice is one thing and playing something else."
A nine-time All-Star, Leetch reached his milestone late in the
second period when he set up defenseman Nick Boynton's
power-play tally that gave Boston a 3-2 edge.
Leetch, a former Norris and Conn Smythe Trophy winner, gave the
Bruins a 2-0 lead midway through the first period. With
Montreal defenseman Andrei Markov serving a hooking penalty,
Leetch flipped a rebound past netminder Jose Theodore for his
second tally of the season.
"It was a disappointing game," Leetch said. "We got outskated
from basically the 10-minute mark of the first period on. ...
Certainly, to get to 1,000 is nice, but it was disappointing, a
disappointing game."
P.J. Axelsson opened the scoring 5 1/2 minutes into the game,
intercepting a pass by rookie Tomas Plekanec in front of the
Canadiens' net and beating Theodore for his third goal.
"It wasn't the start we wanted," Montreal captain Saku Koivu
said. "We had three or four great chances to score but couldn't
put the puck in the net. We felt confident that we could score
some goals, and then in the second period, we were able to put
some pressure on their defense and make some changes to get
those goals."
Ryder, who scored the game-winner against Boston on Opening
Night, netted his fourth of the season on a power play early in
the second to halve Montreal's deficit.
Less than nine minutes later, Koivu converted on a 2-on-1 chance
to draw the Canadiens even.
Kovalev collected three assists for Montreal, which went 3-for-7
with the man advantage and outshot Boston, 38-23.
"It's always fun to play here," Raycroft said. "I knew in
warmup it was going to be a good one. There's a lot of guys
going to the net and scoring from in tight (with) a lot of
bodies in front, but no one was blocking me."