Coach Remi Garde wanted Anthony Jackson-Hamel to show that he deserved more playing time and the striker from Quebec City responded with two goals.
Garde had said this week that forward Raheem Edwards had been out of the lineup due to an off-field issue and the Toronto native also scored.
And veteran Ignacio Piatti, playing his 100th Major League Soccer game, topped them all with a goal and three assists as the Montreal Impact ended a four-game losing streak with a 4-2 victory over the New England Revolution on Saturday afternoon.
“The whole team was hyped for that game,” said Jackson-Hamel after his first two goals of the season. “We all came to fight.”
“It wasn’t about me getting the start, it was about the team getting the win. It was a great opportunity to bounce back at home and we did.”
The Impact (3-6-0) ended a losing streak that began April when they lost 4-0 at New England.
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Wilfried Zahibo had two late goals for the Revolution (4-3-2), who are 1-2-1 in their last four outings.
Garde caused a stir this week when, asked about his sparing use of substitutes, said he wanted to see more commitment in training from some players, naming Jackson-Hamel in particular.
The message must have sunk in because the 24-year-old was in the starting 11 for the first time this season and came through with a brace. He nearly had another but his curling shot from the edge of the penalty area struck the post in the 49th minute.
“The media took it to another level,” Jackson-Hamel said of the mini-controversy. “In the locker room, we knew.”
“Just fight more. It’s not like we were waiting for the coach to say we need to work more. We lost four games in a row, so we knew we had to work more.”
“He gave a good answer,” Garde said of Jackson-Hamel’s game.
The less-than sellout crowd of 15,622 at Saputo Stadium saw Jackson-Hamel open the scoring in injury time before the intermission when Piatti sent him in alone for a shot that Matt Turner got most of, only to see the ball tickle over the line.
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He added another in the 52nd minute. Samuel Piette forced a turnover and Jukka Raitala played the ball ahead to Piatti who slipped the ball to Jackson-Hamel on the left side to blast in a low shot
Piatti, with his sixth assist of the season, served up another gem to the right side for Edwards to convert in the 65th minute. He went into the game needing only one assist to pass Patrice Bernier’s MLS team record of 25 in his career. Now he has 27.
Four minutes later, Piette sent a long ball over the top that Piatti ran down to score his fifth goal of the season.
“This guy is unbelievable,” Edwards said of Piatti, who has 52 career goals with Montreal. “It’s unreal for me to watch him play. It’s crazy.”
Edwards had no problem with Garde’s comment earlier in the week, calling it “good criticism.”
“I thought I did well and the whole team did well,” said Edwards. “We were disappointed with the goals (conceded) at the end. We wanted the clean sheet, but we’re proud. Now we need to push forward from this win and get more points.”
The Impact’s troubles defending set pieces showed again as Zahibo headed a Diego Fagundez corner kick past Evan Bush in the 78th minute. Zahibo got another off a free kick in heavy traffic in the penalty area in the 86th.
New England midfielder Juan Agudelo took a knock in the 35th minute and was replaced by Krisztian Nemeth.
Montreal had Victor Cabrera back from a one-game suspension, but were missing two other central defenders to injury — Rod Fanni and Rudy Camacho. Garde said Camacho has a sore hip that he didn’t want to rush Fanni back into the lineup after missing time with a muscular problem.
The Impact play at Chicago on Wednesday night and are back home next Saturday to face Philadelphia.
The Revs have a home game next Saturday against Toronto FC.