Montreal wing Andrei Kostitsyn had a breakout season a year ago, joining Alex Kovalev on a productive second line and scoring 26 goals and 53 points in his first full NHL season.

After a slow start this fall, the 23-year-old Kostitsyn seems poised to take his scoring to another level in 2008-09. He’s arguably the hottest goal scorer on ice in the new year, with seven goals in eight games this month. Only Atlanta’s Ilya Kovalchuk can match that total, though he can’t match the five-game goal-scoring streak that Kostitsyn takes into Montreal’s Tuesday night matchup in Atlanta with Kovalchuk’s Thrashers.

After a first-period goal in Montreal’s 5-4 shootout win in Ottawa Saturday, Kostitsyn has 16 on the season, just 10 fewer than in all of 2007-08. He’s found the net in five straight and has seven goals in the Canadiens’ last seven contests. He went scoreless in the Habs’ first game of 2009, but has a seven-game point-scoring streak that has netted 11 points during a 6-1-0 surge by the Canadiens.

With the Canadiens tallying five or more goals in five of their last eights games, they have managed to go 6-2-0 without their No. 1 goaltender, Carey Price, who is out with a lower body injury.

Kostitsyn has four power-play goals in this span, though it isn’t as though the man advantage has simply afforded him an abundance of shots on goal. He’s been one of the more efficient shooters among January’s top goal scorers.

Shooting Percentage in January
(min 3 goals)

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Goals. . . . . .Shots. . . . . . Pct
Nathan Horton, Fla. . . . . . . . .4. . . . . . . . .10. . . . . . .40.0
Nikita Filatov, Cls. . . . . . . . . . 3. . . . . . . . . .8. . . . . . .37.5
Tomas Holmstrom, Det. . . . . . 3. . . . . . . . . .8. . . . . . .37.5
Andrei Kostitsyn, Mon. . . . . . .7. . . . . . . . .19. . . . . . .36.8
Gregory Campbell, Fla. . . . . . .3. . . . . . . . . .9. . . . . . .33.3
Mike Greer, SJ. . . . . . . . . . . .4. . . . . . . . .12. . . . . . .33.3

The 10th overall pick in the 2003 draft, Kostitsyn is developing into an elite scoring threat. He currently shares the team lead in goals with Robert Lang, both with 16, and they along with Kovalev and Alex Tanguay give the Canadiens four dangerous sharpshooters, each of whom has at least 10 goals this season.

The next big threat may be Kostitsyn’s younger brother, Sergei, who is just 21 and has eight goals in his first full season in the league. Five of those goals have come in his last 13 games, and he has 11 points in this stretch.