NHL

Canadiens score six in Gainey's first win

By wire services
Published January 15, 2006

MONTREAL - Andrei Markov had two goals and two assists in a six-goal second period to help Montreal general manager Bob Gainey win his Canadiens coaching debut, a 6-2 victory over the Sharks on Saturday night.

Gainey fired coach Claude Julien earlier in the day and made himself interim coach. He also brought in former team captain Guy Carbonneau as an associate coach who will take over as head coach at the end of the season.

Markov and Chris Higgins scored short-handed goals and Markov also had one of Montreal's four power-play goals in the second. All of the Canadiens' goals against Evgeny Nabokov in the period came as the result of special-teams play.

Jose Theodore made 23 saves and Swiss defenseman Mark Streit scored his first NHL goal and added an assist, both points coming on the power play. Jan Bulis and Mike Ribeiro also each had a goal and an assist on power plays in the second.

Grant Stevenson and Joe Thornton scored for San Jose, which ended a five-game winning streak that fell one short of its longest of the season.

Gainey, who stepped behind an NHL bench for the first time in 10 years took over a team that got off to a 12-3-1 start and had won just seven of its past 25 games.

The winner of four straight Selke Awards as the league's top defensive player during a Hall of Fame career with Montreal, Gainey had a 165-190-60 regular-season coaching record with Minnesota/Dallas from 1990-96, leading the North Stars to their second Stanley Cup final appearance in 1992.

Markov, along with Theodore and injured defenseman Sheldon Souray, was singled out by Gainey as a player who had underperformed so far this season.

The 27-year-old Russian was quick to respond, scoring a short-handed goal 1:35 into the second on a fine set up by Radek Bonk to tie it after Stevenson's eighth of the season opened the scoring 17:33 in.

Markov got his second of the game - his seventh of the season - on a power play at 7:15 to put Montreal ahead 2-1.

He got an assist on Higgins' short-handed goal at 8:59, a fine individual effort by the Canadiens rookie that increased the lead to 3-1.

Markov picked up his fourth straight point at 17:13 as he set up Streit, who beat Nabokov with a point shot for his first goal in 26 games.

Ribeiro added another power-play goal at 18:25 and then took a hard hit from Sharks defenseman Kyle McLaren as he set up Bulis' goal at 19:34, the Canadiens' fourth on five power-play opportunities in the second.

Vesa Toskala took over in the third for Nabokov, who recorded his first shutout of the season in a 2-0 win in Ottawa on Thursday night.

Thornton scored his 16th on a power play late in the third.

Julien, hired on Jan. 17, 2003, leaves his first NHL coaching job with a 72-62-10 record. He helped Montreal reach the second round of the playoffs in 2004. But after a 12-3-1 start, the Canadiens won only seven of the next 25 games and dropped from first to 10th in the Eastern Conference. They made the move following a 2-1 loss in Colorado on Wednesday night in which they blew a third-period lead.

SABRES 10, KINGS 1: Jochen Hecht and Jason Pominville scored three goals apiece in host Buffalo's highest-scoring game in almost 13 years.

The three goals were career highs for both Hecht and Pominville, who scored three straight goals for a natural hat trick. He had two power-play goals and also scored on a short-handed breakaway. Hecht had an assist.

COYOTES 4, MAPLE LEAFS 3: Phoenix overcame a three-goal, first-period deficit in Wayne Gretzky's first coaching game in Toronto, and former Maple Leafs goalie Curtis Joseph, playing his first in Toronto since leaving in 2002, made 25 saves.

BLUE JACKETS 5, PANTHERS 4: David Vyborny scored a power-play goal with 12 seconds left in overtime, and Pascal Leclaire made 47 saves for visiting Columbus.

CANUCKS 8, ISLANDERS 1: Todd Bertuzzi scored twice on visiting Vancouver's first three shots en route to his fifth career hat trick and the Canucks chased New York goalie Rick DiPietro with three second-period goals.

STARS 2, BRUINS 1 (SO): Jussi Jokinen scored the only goal of the shootout to extend his record for 5-for-5 in shootout chances. Visiting Dallas tied the game when Sergei Zubov fired a wrist shot inside the right post 8:42 into the third.

AVALANCHE 4, FLYERS 3 (OT): Alex Tanguay scored with 45.8 seconds left in overtime, helping visiting Colorado spoil Peter Forsberg's first game against his former team.

RED WINGS 4, RANGERS 3: Brendan Shanahan's second goal of the game snapped a third-period tie and host Detroit broke the Rangers' streak of seven games with at least a point. ... Rangers defenseman Darius Kasparaitis sustained a mild MCL sprain in his knee when he collided with forward Dominic Moore during warmups and was helped off the ice.

FLAMES 4, WILD 1: Jarome Iginla scored early in the third period to help visiting Calgary snap a three-game losing streak.

[Last modified January 15, 2006, 01:48:18]