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April 3, 2007

Bruins shutout by Canadiens, 2-0

MONTREAL — Saku Koivu scored twice, including his career-high 22nd goal in the third period, and Jaroslav Halak got his second shutout in the Montreal Canadiens’ 2-0 win over the Boston Bruins on Tuesday night before the Bell Centre’s 100th straight sellout crowd.

Koivu scored his 21st goal on a power play at 16:46 to reach 70 points for only the second time in his career. The Canadiens captain brought the crowd of 21,273 to its feet in a roar when he beat Hannu Toivonen for his second goal of the game with 5:18 remaining.

The Finnish center danced off the right corner and jumped against the boards, driving his left shoulder into the glass in celebration of tying his career high for points and Montreal went on to record its 90th point in the tight battle for the final two playoff spots in the Eastern Conference.

It is the second straight season the Canadiens have sold out every regular-season home game. The total attendance of 872,193 tied the league record Montreal set last season.

Halak made his eighth straight start, improving to 7-1 in that stretch.

The 21-year-old Slovak stopped 29 shots to shut out Boston for the second time in seven games. He made 30 saves in a 1-0 win over the Bruins on March 22.

Boston lost its fourth in a row, and has won only three of its past 15 games (3-11-1).
Toivonen, who was recalled from Providence of the AHL on Monday, made 28 saves and fell to 3-8-1 in 17 games this season. It was his first appearance since Feb. 24, when he relieved Tim Thomas for the final two periods of a 7-2 loss in Florida.

Notes: Canadiens G Cristobal Huet was supposed to dress for the game and back up Halak, but team officials said the necessary paperwork to remove him from the injury reserve list wasn’t filed to the league in time. David Aebischer backed up Halak for the eighth straight game. ... Koivu had 21 goals and 71 points in 2002-03, his first full season after overcoming non-Hodgkin intra-abdominal lymphoma.

— ASSOCIATED PRESS

Posted by Chris Venditto  at 10:17 PM to Bruins | Permalink

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