Not convincing.

The Montreal Canadiens hosted the New-York Islanders yesterday evening at the Bell centre.

Montreal really struggled during the first half of the game, unable to produce any consistant play. Hopefully for the fans gathered in the arena, the home team played better as the game developped.

Roman Hamrlik finally managed to beat goaltender Rick DiPietro and opened the score during the second period on the power play. Alex Kovalev and Guillaume Latendresse scored during the third period to give a bit of breathing room to goalteder Jaroslav Halak who did very well. Halak blocked 30 shots to register his third career shutout.

Final score: Montreal Canadiens 3 - New-York Islanders 0.

Montreal remains in first place of the northeast division, two points ahead of the Ottawa Senators. Next game for Montreal will take place on tuesday as the St-Louis Blues will be the visitors.

(Picture: Tom Kostopoulos and Rick DiPietro, Canadian Press.)