Capitals-Canadiens: Kostitsyn's Late Goal Vaults Habs to Victory

Tomas Plekanec had a two-goal night, and coach Guy Carbonneau earned an assistant coaching position at this season's All-Star Game, as the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Washington Capitals 5-4.

The Canadiens went into the third period down two to one on a pair of goals by Alexander Semin. Plekanec's first goal, shorthanded, was sandwiched in between.

Starting the period with a power-play and ultimately a two-man advantage, the struggling Habs power-play responded with goals by Robert Lang and Andrei Kostitsyn to take a brief lead.

Tomas Fleischmann tied it up for the Capitals, but the Canadiens overtook them again with Plekanec's second goal of the night.

The game was far from over. Sergei Kostitsyn took a hooking penalty, enabling an Alexander Ovechkin shot to bounce off teammate Michael Nylander on the ensuing power-play.

The game looked certain to head into overtime until Kostitisyn atoned for his earlier penalty, scoring unassisted while on his back, with 22 seconds to play.

Canadiens goaltender, Jaroslav Halak, and his Capitals counter-part, Brent Johnson, each faced 35 shots.

The Capitals clearly held the balance of offensive control through the game, as demonstrated by the Canadiens 32 blocked shots, 10 of those coming from All-Star-Game starter, Mike Komisarek. The Capitals blocked 17 Habs shots.

The winning coach from this game would go on to be an assistant coach for the Eastern Conference All-Star team later this month.

Despite telling the media that the important value of this game was the two points, this may have been a bit of redemption for Carbonneau, who lost the Adams Trophy last season to Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau.