(Tuesday, January 29th)

Final Score: Montreal 4, Washington 0

Montreal, QC (Sports Network) - Cristobal Huet made 35 saves to record his second shutout of the season as Montreal crowned Washington, 4-0, in the front end of a home-and-home from Bell Centre.

Mark Streit, Sergei Kostitsyn, Saku Koivu and Alex Kovalev each scored once for the Canadiens, winners in five of their last six.

Brent Johnson made 36 stops in defeat for the Capitals, who lost for just the second time in their last six games.

Montreal got all the offense it needed during a three-goal first period.

After watching the Capitals fly through the offensive zone early in the game, Montreal turned around and took a 1-0 lead when Streit one-timed an Andrei Markov pass through traffic for a power-play goal midway through the stanza.

Kostitsyn picked up a short-handed goal with 3:07 to play in the period, finishing off a pass from Tomas Plekanec on a 2-on-1 rush and Koivu followed one minute, 31 seconds later when he redirected Steve Begin's dish from behind the net.

Huet stopped all 13 shots he faced in the second to maintain the three-goal edge, and a final power-play tally by Kovalev with 46.2 seconds left in the contest wrapped it up.

Game Notes

The Habs have won five of the last seven meetings...Huet now has 15 career whitewashes, all but four coming in a Canadiens uniform...Washington suffered its fourth shutout of the season, while Huet has been in net both times Montreal has shut down an opponent...The Capitals committed six of the game's eight penalties...The teams meet in Washington on Thursday.

01/29 22:22:34 ET