Montreal's Brian Gionta scores the first goal against Pittsburgh's John Curry as Penguins defenceman Deryk Engelland watches on Monday in Montreal. (Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press) Brian Gionta's second goal of the night proved to be the winner as the Montreal Canadiens beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-3 in Montreal on Monday.
A short-handed goal by Habs forward Scott Gomez tied the game at two before Guillaume Latendresse and Gionta scored 2:25 apart to complete the comeback.
The Pens' Bill Guerin made it a one-goal game with just over three minutes to go but Montreal goaltender Carey Price shut the door from there on to preserve the win.
Price made 28 saves, while at the other end John Curry turned away 24.
Sloppy defence costs the Pens
The first period was a back and forth affair, but it was Montreal that broke the scoreless tie as the period wound down.
With 1:48 to go, Gionta was left untouched by the Penguins defenceman Deryk Engelland in front of Curry. With nobody picking the diminutive forward, Gionta was allowed four whacks on a rebound from a Jaroslav Spacek shot from the blue line for the 1-0 lead.
Gonchar evened things up 2:27 into the second. The Penguins defenseman scored from the point thanks to plenty of traffic blocking the view of Price.
P.K. heading to the 'A'
Defenceman P.K. Subban, goalie Cedrick Desjardins, and forward David Desharnais highlight the list of 17 players cut by the Montreal Canadiens on Monday.
All will report to the American Hockey League's Hamilton Bulldogs, who are set to take off for camp in Scotland on Tuesday.
The others sent to the Bulldogs are: goalie Robert Mayer, defencemen Andre Benoit, Chad Anderson, Michael Busto and Frederik St-Denis, and forwards Ryan White, Mikael Johansson, James Wyman, Ryan Russell, Andrew Conboy, Brock Trotter, Dany Masse, Mike Glumac and Mathieu Darche.
The Habs also assigned defenceman Shawn Belle and forward Eric Neilson to Hamilton after Monday's game.
The Pens struck again four minutes later. Fresh out of the box for his delay of game penalty, Ben Lovejoy advanced the puck into the Montreal end and spotted last year's regular season scoring champ Malkin cutting towards the slot. Malkin made no mistake with a low wrister that handcuffed Price for a 2-1 lead.
Spacek, trying to contain Sidney Crosby on a Penguins 2-on-1 led by Guerin, got his stick up and drew blood from Crosby, earning himself a double minor and handing the Pens a power play to start the third period.
Crosby didn't miss anytime and returned to the ice during the power play, however, the man-advantage didn't go as planned. Not only did the Penguins come up empty handed, they let the Habs tie it up.
Gomez, Gionta team up on short-handed goal
Montreal's Gomez won a defensive zone face-off against Crosby, took the puck through the neutral zone and found Gionta with a pass on the far side of the Pittsburgh zone. Gomez went to the net and put his stick down as Gionta directed a bullet pass that tipped off Gomez's twig past Curry.
"Brian's always been a great player," said Gomez. "The thing with Brian is he works so hard, you have to match that.
"He goes 100 per cent every time and to keep up with him, you have to pick up your game. But it's been a while since we played together, we still need time. There were a couple of passes where I rushed him."
Latendresse was the next to benefit from the Penguins defensive trouble around their own net. He was the third Canadien to get lumber on a loose puck but the first to send the rebound past a sprawled Curry to re-take the lead.
Monday's game marked the first time Gomez and Gionta played on the same line while in Montreal and they were later joined by another notable off-season forward acquisition by the Habs. Mike Cammalleri joined the top line after Max Pacioretty left the game with an upper body injury early in the third period.
Gionta added his second of the night off a little give-and-go with Cammalleri. Andrei Markov passed to the open Cammalleri at the side of the Pittsburgh goal, Gionta took a pass from him, passed it back and got it back in the in the slot before firing it upstairs.
"The thing in the pre-season is we're finishing strong," said Gionta. "We're building some chemistry out there and working hard."
Guerin used an off-speed wrist shot on the Pens' fifth power-play chance of the night to fool Price and deflect in off the post with 3:21 left to play.
"It was OK," said Crosby of his power play unit with Malkin, Guerin, Gonchar and Kris Letang. "We haven't got a lot of chances to practise it.
"We've still got some kinks to work out, like timing. As we go on we have to improve, no doubt. but it's good to have everybody together."
Montreal (3-2) will next face Boston on Thursday while Pittsburgh (1-2) takes on Toronto on Tuesday.
With files from The Canadian Press
