An excerpt from the TSN game review:
Alex Tanguay scored twice and Saku Koivu had a goal and two assists as the Montreal Canadiens downed the Phoenix Coyotes 4-1 in a rough NHL matchup Saturday night at the Bell Centre.
Robert Lang also scored for Montreal (4-0-1), which won its fourth game in a row. Koivu passed Maurice (Rocket) Richard for seventh place in team history for career assists with 422nd.
The Coyotes (2-3-0) lost a third straight game and lost big for a second night in a row after a 6-3 defeat in Ottawa on Friday night.
The game got nasty with Montreal leading 2-0 at the 3:44 mark of the second period when defenceman Kurt Sauer got an arm into Canadiens forward Andrei Kostitsyn’s face and slammed his head into the glass. Kostitsyn’s face hit the ice as he fell.
There was no call on the play, and the sell-out crowd of 21,273 chanted the name of new enforcer Georges Laraque as Kostitsyn was helped from the ice in a daze with a large welt around his left eye. He did not return and there was no immediate word on his condition.
Coach Guy Carbonneau didn’t wait to send out Laraque, but the six-foot-three 225-pound Sauer declined an invitation to fight, although a few minutes later he went with the smaller Tom Kostopoulos.