An undisciplined and tired New York Islanders team was just what Montreal captain Saku Koivu needed to regain his scoring touch.

Koivu snapped a two-game goal-less drought with a pair of power-play goals to lead the visiting Canadiens to a 4-2 victory on Thursday night.

Canadiens captain Saku Koivu chases New York forward Arron Asham up the ice.
(Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

He also set up Guillaume Latendresse's first-period goal to give him six goals and 11 points in his last nine starts.

"Our power play is going pretty good right now," said Montreal defenceman Sheldon Souray, who picked up two assists in the win. "Saku's in front of the net, taking all the abuse, and getting the rebounds."

Craig Rivet also scored for Montreal, which halted a two-game losing skid and improved to 16-8-4 on the season.

Michael Ryder also had two assists as the Canadiens closed to within eight points of the Northeast Division-leading Buffalo Sabres, 3-1 losers to Florida on Thursday.

Montreal will host the Sabres on Saturday to kick off a four-game homestand.

Scoring for New York was former Canadien Arron Asham and Mike Sillinger, who had two points.

Two of the six penalties called against the Islanders were for too many men, and though Montreal didn't score on either one, that did not appease New York coach Ted Nolan.

Penalties 'hurtful'

"All those penalties were hurtful to our team," he said. "We have to learn some math — we can't have six skaters on the ice."

Cristobal Huet turned aside all 12 shots directed his way in the third period and 25 overall for his second consecutive win.

The Islanders had a power play for the last 1:37 of regulation, and pulled goalie Rick DiPietro, but Huet stopped all eight shots he faced in that time.

Playing their 13th game in 23 days, the Islanders (14-11-3) were short-handed before the game started.

Captain Alexei Yashin is expected to miss another week with a knee injury, while hard-hitting forward Trent Hunter (sprained knee) could be out the rest of the month.

With Montreal leading 2-1, Koivu scored his first goal at 6:51 of the second when he finished off Ryder's centring pass.

"Michael made a great pass over to me," Koivu said. "It's just a question of right place, right time."

New York answered two minutes later. Sillinger, at the left post, tipped Sean Hill's shot past Huet.

Koivu connected for his 10th of the season on a backhand during a power play at 5:10 of the final period.

"I don't know if the guys weren't ready or what," Asham said. "We have to play all 60 minutes if we want to win the game. We're making bad plays and taking a lot of penalties, and you can't win games if you're in the box all the time."

With files from the Associated Press