NHL Game Summary - NY Rangers at Montreal

Updated 10:03 PM EST, Thu, Dec 4, 2008

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Montreal, QC (Sports Network) - Maxim Lapierre, Steve Begin and Matt D'Agostini each had a goal and an assist, as the Montreal Canadiens stayed hot at home with a 6-2 win over the New York Rangers.

Alex Tanguay, Robert Lang and Andrei Kostitsyn each lit the lamp for the Canadiens, who have gotten off to a 3-0 start on their current seven-game homestand. Montreal is 8-2-2 so far this season at the Bell Centre.

Georges Laraque and Andrei Markov each had two assists for the Canadiens, while Carey Price faced just 20 shots, stopping 18 of them.

Nigel Dawes and Markus Naslund scored for the Rangers, who had won four of five coming into the contest. Henrik Lundqvist allowed all six goals on 39 shots in the loss.

Montreal scored the game's first four goals and never looked back. Approaching the midway point of the first period, Kostitsyn got the Canadiens on the scoreboard. He accepted an outlet pass on the rush, then handed the puck to D'Agostini in the Rangers zone before racing up the slot.

D'Agostini placed a pass in front of the crease, and Kostitsyn backhanded the puck into the net at 9:52.

Just 55 seconds later on another Montreal rush, Lapierre kept the puck as he skated through the right circle and fed the disc to the left post for Begin, who sent it into a wide-open portion of the net.

With 2:23 left in the frame, Roman Hamrlik gathered a loose puck along the left goal line and sent a pass behind the net for Tanguay on the right side, and he managed to beat Lundqvist at a narrow angle.

Montreal took the 3-0 lead into the second period, and quickly expanded its lead when Lapierre banged in a rebound at the 3:35 mark.

Naslund tipped in a power play goal for the Rangers at 13:02, and Dawes one- timed a nice pass from Nikolai Zherdev with 1:17 remaining in the second frame. The tallies got the Rangers within 4-2, but just 49 seconds into the third period Lang caromed in a pass from Markov at the right post to give the Canadiens a three-goal advantage.

Montreal held the lead down the stretch, and D'Agostini scored with 50 seconds left to seal the win.