of the game 4:46 into the third, leading the Montreal Canadiens to a 5-3 win
over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday night.
Bergeron tied the game at 2 with his fourth goal midway
through the second. He scored his second goal of the game — Montreal's second in
a span of 2:28 early in the third — to give the Canadiens the lead for good.
Carey Price stopped 33 shots and Mike Cammalleri and Glen
Metropolit also scored for Montreal, which improved to 3-0-1 in its last four
games, including a 3-2 shootout loss to Detroit on Saturday.
Antoine Vermette scored twice and Anton Stralman and Rick
Nash also had two points for Columbus, which has lost three straight to fall to
1-2-1 on its season-high five-game trip.
Garon started for the Blue Jackets and made 24 saves one
night after he relieved Steve Mason and gave up three goals on 15 shots in a 7-4
road loss to the New York Rangers.
The former Canadiens goalie made a fine poke-check to deny
Max Pacioretty's scoring chance moments before he was down and out when Bergeron
took Ryan White's pass from behind the goal line and put a shot into the left
side of the net.
Lapierre's goal at 15:25 gave Montreal its first two-goal
margin.
Sergei Kostitsyn assisted on the goal after he was
recalled from Hamilton of the AHL earlier in the day.
Vermette restored Columbus' 3-2 lead 11:46 into the
second period with his second of the game, the Blue Jackets' second straight
power-play goal. He and Stralman also scored 1:36 apart in the first.
Metropolit drew Montreal even for the second time 2:18
into the third. Roman Hamrlik's point shot struck the crossbar and Metropolit
swooped in to backhand home the loose puck in the crease after it dropped behind
Garon.
Cammalleri gave the Canadiens a short-lived 1-0 lead
5:50 in when his long wrist shot trickled past Garon for his fourth goal in
three games.
Vermette tied it at 6:36 with his fifth goal when he
finished off Nash's nifty backhand pass through the crease.
Stralman, who also got an assist on Vermette's goal, put
Columbus ahead with an unassisted power-play goal at 8:16. Nash got his second
straight assist when his pass from the right side struck a few sticks before it
wound up at the feet of Stralman, who beat Price with a shot inside the left
post.
Canadiens enforcer Georges Laraque did not dress after
he received a five-game suspension for injuring Detroit defenseman Niklas
Kronwall with a leg-on-leg hit on Saturday.
Notes
Garon spent parts of four seasons with Montreal
from 2000-04 at the beginning of his career. … Canadiens RW James Wyman was
also called up from Hamilton and made his NHL debut.