his first NHL goal 13:47 into the third to help the Colorado Avalanche
beat Montreal 3-2 on Thursday night, spoiling the Canadiens' 100th home
opener.
O'Reilly, an 18-year-old chosen 33rd
overall by Colorado in the June draft at the Bell Centre, got his own
rebound and put a shot past Carey Price to give Colorado its third
straight victory.
Craig Anderson stopped 29 shots, including a furious flurry by Montreal in the dying seconds.
Milan Hejduk and Kyle Cumiskey also
scored for the Avalanche (4-1-1), who are five games into a seven-game
trip, Colorado's longest of the season.
Roman Hamrlik and Tomas Plekanec
scored for the Canadiens, who have lost four straight since opening the
season with a pair of overtime wins.
Plekanec drew Montreal even at 2 when
he took Andrei Kostitsyn's centering pass and put a shot through
Anderson's pads 8:26 into the third.
The Canadiens, who celebrated their
100th season last year, did not play any games in 2004-05, when the
league's schedule was ultimately canceled because of a work stoppage.
Price, who faced the Avalanche for
the first time, stopped 20 shots. He debuted a new mask featuring six
"Ace of Spades" cards, yet he was decidedly unlucky in the second.
Cumiskey got credit for his first
goal since January 2007 as Colorado banked in two shots off Montreal
defensemen in the second period to take a 2-1 lead.
Hejduk drew the Avalanche even at 1
during 4-on-4 play 13:39 into the middle period. He got credit for his
second goal of the season 10 seconds after Plekanec was sent off for
cross-checking when his shot struck Josh Gorges' left skate, sending
the puck skidding slowly between Price's pads and into the net.
Price had little chance on
Colorado's second goal at 19:32. Cumiskey's shot from the left side
struck Shawn Belle, who was called up from Hamilton of the AHL on
Tuesday, and caromed past Price to give the Avalanche a 2-1 lead with
28 seconds left in the second.
Hamrlik scored his second goal of
the season on a power play midway through the first. Canadiens forwards
Kostitsyn and Plekanec exchanged the puck in the right corner
and Plekanec moved up to feed a centering pass to Hamrlik in the slot,
who put a shot along the ice into the open left side.
Notes
Cumiskey, drafted 222nd
overall by the Avalanche in 2005, had one goal in his previous 59
games. He scored his first and only other NHL goal on Jan. 6, 2007
against Minnesota's Manny Fernandez. … Belle appeared in nine games
with Minnesota in 2006-07. … The Canadiens are 56-27-16-1 overall in
home openers, including two wins and six losses during their first
eight seasons in the National Hockey Association before they joined the
NHL in 1917-18 as one of the league's founding franchises. … Montreal
went 24-10-7 last season at the Bell Centre.