MONTREAL -- It seemed that all of Montreal was waiting for Sergei Samsonov to break loose.

Unfortunately for his old club, the Boston Bruins, he chose to do it against them.

The mercurial Samsonov, who spent eight years in Black and Gold, fired in two goals to lead the Canadiens to a 4-3 victory over Boston, in front of a sellout crowd of 21,273 at the Bell Centre.

"It's always special when I play against them," said Samsonov.

The first of his goals ended what had been a 19-game scoring drought that stretched back to Oct. 28, when he also scored twice.

His second of the game, at 12:49 of the third period, snapped a 2-2 tie and put the Habs ahead for good.

Both of them put a smile on the face of the former Bruin first-round draft pick, who signed with the Canadiens as a free agent last summer, but has floundered ever since.

"You definitely start double guessing things whether you're doing what's right on the ice," he said. "It's a frustrating period. You try to find a solution. But in the end, all you can do is try to work hard, and try to come out of this slump."

The first period proved costly to the Bruins, and painful, too.

They gave up a power-play goal to Montreal's Andrei Markov at 6:36, who beat goalie Hannu Toivonen from just off the post.

Toivonen, who was making his first start for Boston since Nov. 4, and only because scheduled starter Tim Thomas became ill before the game, had dropped into the butterfly position, but Markov managed to chip the puck over his right skate.

Later in the frame, the Bruins lost forwards Marco Sturm and Glen Murray temporarily to facial injuries in span of 58 seconds. Both needed several stitches, but returned by the start of the second period.

Matters improved for Boston in the second period, when Marc Savard wrapped a pair of power play goals around a tally by Samsonov.

Savard's first goal came at 2:09, when he polished off a four-way passing play by ripping a 40-foot slap shot into a net left open when goalie David Aebischer went down.

Samsonov replied at 6:52 after making a series of slick moves, then following up his own rebound to pop in his fifth goal of the year.

But just 42 seconds later, Murray forced Montreal's Alexei Kovalev to cough up the puck in the Habs zone, the pushed it ahead to Savard.

Savard finished the play with a gorgeous shot under the crossbar.

It was his ninth goal of the season.

Meanwhile, Toivonen (36 saves) preserved the deadlock through the rest of the period by making a pair of stellar stops, including one on Michael Ryder from point-blank range at 10:59 by flashing a quick glove.

"He was tested a lot," said Boston coach Dave Lewis, "and he responded pretty well. It's the best game I've seen him play this year."

However, Toivonen had no chance on Samsonov's second tally, which came when Montreal's Tomas Plekanec whisked the puck away from Zdeno Chara behind the Boston net. Then, while on his knees, he managed to push it out to Samsonov, who was alone in front.

Samsonov did the rest by shoveling it past Toivonen, giving the Habs the lead again and giving himself a little extra personal satisfaction.

"Guys always joke around," he said on the subject of beating his former team. "It's nice to take a couple of points away (from them)."

Habs rookie Guilliame Latendresse later made it 4-2 before the Bruins' Petr Tenkrat tipped in a slapper from Jason York with 51 seconds left to close the scoring.

The loss was the second in a row for Boston, which lost to New Jersey on Saturday.