Bondra Gets 300 In Caps Tie

It was a game the Montreal Canadiens knew they might come to regret at season's end.

"If we don't make the playoffs by a point, this is one game we could look at later in the year," forward Shayne Corson said after the Canadiens twice wasted two-goal leads before settling for a 4-4 tie Monday night with the Washington Capitals. "We look at this one and say that we should have had the extra point."

The Canadiens held leads of 2-0 and 3-1, but needed Vladimir Malakhov's goal with less than 40 seconds to play in the second to take a 4-3 lead.

But Capitals forward Peter Bondra scored his 300th career goal off a 2-on-1 rush on a power play at 8:22 of the third period to tie the game again.

"The point really isn't enough," said Bondra, who now has 15 goals. "But I'm proud of the way we played."

"We were down by two after the first period but we stayed in it. We just had to keep shooting and creating chances. Their goals were a result of our mistakes. We almost won it in the third."

Jan Bulis hit the post for the Capitals late in the third period. The Canadiens then thought they had regained the lead when Brian Savage beat goaltender Rick Tabaracci, but a replay showed Benoit Brunet was in the crease.

The Canadiens outshot Washington 4-0 in overtime but couldn't beat Rick Tabaracci, who replaced Olaf Kolzig at the start of the third period after Kolzig allowed four goals on 22 shots.

"We just went into a defensive shell and their good players kept coming at us and did a good job of forechecking," said Savage, who now has four goals in his last fougames and 10 on the season after scoring on a power play to make it 3-1 early in the second period.

"We had a hard time getting the puck out of our zone. That's something we have to work on."

Kelly Miller, Joe Juneau and Sergei Gonchar also scored for Washington, which remained unbeaten (5-0-2) at the Molson Centre since the building opened in March 1996. Andrei Nikolishin and James Black had two assists apiece.

Stephane Quintal, Eric Weinrich and Vladimir Malakhov also scored for Montreal, which had won its previous four home games. Savage and Malakhov had two assists apiece.

Quintal opened the scoring midway through the first period when his slap shot from the point beat Kolzig low to the stick side just after a Washington penalty expired. It was Quintal's fourth goal in his last six games.

Weinrich made it 2-0 with 49 seconds left to play in the period after Mark Recchi forced a turnover behind the Capitals' net.

Miller cut the deficit to 2-1 early in the second when he poked a rebound past Jeff Hackett, ending the goalie's shutout streak at 142 minutes 20 seconds.

After Savage made it 3-1, Juneau scored on a wraparound and Gonchar made it 3-3 on a power play at 15:49.

"Our plan was to get a lot of traffic in front of Hackett and it worked," said Washington coach Ron Wilson. "We made their defense and Hackett a little weary. And we forced them into a lot of turnovers that led to scoring chances."

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