Armstrong's late goal ends Canadiens' five-game home winning streak

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MONTREAL - Mark Popovic scored his first NHL goal and Colby Armstrong got the game-winner in a seesaw third period to lift the Atlanta Thrashers to a 5-4 victory over the Montreal Canadiens last night.

Rich Peverley had a goal and two assists, Pavel Kubina got his first as a Thrasher and Bryan Little also scored for Atlanta (6-4-1), which was coming off a 3-1 win Saturday night in Ottawa on a 50-save effort from Ondrej Pavelec.

The Czech goaltender allowed a pair of goals to Brian Gionta and one each by Mike Cammalleri and Tomas Plekanec on 38 Montreal shots as the Canadiens (7-8-0) had a five-game home winning streak ended.

Carey Price, now 2-6-0 for the season, faced 30 Atlanta shots.

The Thrashers were first on the puck for most of the first period and took a 2-0 lead as Peverley's pass near the net went in off Little's leg at 17:34. It was Little's first goal of the season and his first in 20 games dating to March 20.

With 13 seconds left in the period, Peverley beat Price with a quick shot off a feed from Todd White.

Gionta finally got one past Pavelec just after a power play ended 2:51 into the second frame. He scored on a low shot from outside the left circle on a rush.

Popovic got it back at 7:30 when his point shot went off a defender's stick and went in off the crossbar. It was the first goal in 57 career NHL games for the Stoney Creek, Ont., defenceman, who returned to the Thrashers after playing for St. Petersburg of the KHL last season.

With 36 seconds left in the period, Peverley misfired a pass in his own zone and Cammalleri stole it and went in alone to deke Pavelec.

Gionta tied it wit his second of the game 1:26 into the third period when he took a feed from Scott Gomez and picked the top corner fro close range.

In other NHL action:

Lightning 2

Maple Leafs 1 (OT)

At Toronto, Phil Kessel impressed in his long awaited Toronto Maple Leafs debut, but it was more of the same for his struggling team Tas Ryan Malone scored at 2:21 of overtime for a 2-1 Tampa Bay Lightning victory.

Malone tapped home an awkward winner that bounced over Jonas Gustavsson moments after John Mitchell nearly won it for the Maple Leafs on a pretty rush, with the puck nearly taking another funny hop into the goal. Malone's goal stood up after a video review.

Vincent Lecavalier also scored for Lightning (5-4-4), who won their first road game of the season (1-4-1).

Ian White replied for the Maple Leafs (1-7-5), who have lost four straight games in extra time and remained winless at home (0-4-2) before a crowd of 19,301. That came despite the best efforts of Kessel, who played over 23 minutes and had 10 shots.

Red Wings 2 Bruins 0

At Detroit, Henrik Zetterberg and Tomas Holmstrom scored in the first period, then Chris Osgood finished with his first shutout of the season to give the Detroit Red Wings a 2-0 win over the Boston Bruins.