Avs' victory hurts Hawks' chances; Canadiens win

MONTREAL -- Andrei Kostitsyn scored two of Montreal's three first-period goals and the Canadiens clinched a playoff spot with a 7-5 win over the Ottawa Senators on Monday night.

Chris Higgins also scored in the first as Montreal beat Martin Gerber three times in the opening period while outshooting Ottawa 14-7.

The Canadiens added four goals in the second as Francis Bouillon, Andrei Markov, Mikhail Grabovski and Tom Kostopoulos scored on Ray Emery, who replaced Gerber to begin the middle period.

Carey Price stopped 31 shots for Montreal, which returned to the playoffs for just the fourth time in the past nine seasons.

Dany Heatley got his 38th and 39th goals for the Senators, who scored four times in the third period after falling behind 7-1 late in the second.

Antoine Vermette, Martin Lapointe and Jason Spezza also scored for Ottawa.