The Montreal defense stole the show on Saturday night, as Canadiens defensemen scored three times to lead the club to a 5-2 win over the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs.
Noah Dobson posted the first multi-goal game of his career, scoring twice on one-timers as the Canadiens jumped out to a 4-0 lead and cruised to end their five-game losing streak. Fellow defenseman Lane Hutson also scored a goal and blue-liner Mike Matheson added two assists.
Josh Anderson also scored twice, the second on a late empty-netter, as Montreal won for the first time in two weeks. Ivan Demidov also tallied two assists while Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky and Nick Suzuki all chipped in with a helper.
Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored for Toronto and William Nylander added a goal and an assist in the loss. Anderson’s first goal came off an assist from Florian Xhekaj, a 21-year-old winger making his NHL debut. Florian and his 24-year-old brother Arber Xhekaj became the 13th pair of brothers to play together for the Canadiens.
Leafs goaltender Joseph Woll turned away 21 of 25 shots before being replaced by Dennis Hildeby in the second period. Montreal’s Jakub Dobes stopped 24 of 26 in turn.
Hutson extended his point streak to three games when he opened the scoring 12:11 into the first period. The dynamic defenseman crept into the faceoff circle to receive a perfectly placed saucer pass from Suzuki, hammering his one-timer over a sprawling Woll.
Dobson doubled up just over a minute later with a virtually uncontested one-timer from the point.
The Habs seized control of the game in the second period — a period in which before Saturday they had accumulated a dismal minus-10 goal differential on the season. Dobson quickly added his second of the game off a lightning-quick tic-tac-toe sequence, youngsters Demidov and Slafkovsky his two partners in crime.
Anderson extended Montreal’s lead to four off a slick Florian Xhekaj feed from behind the net, prompting Toronto coach Craig Berube to take Woll out of the game. Ekman-Larsson responded with a weakly hit snap shot from the point to spoil Dobes’ shutout with less than three minutes remaining in the middle frame.
The game descended into fisticuffs in the third period, Florian Xhekaj dropping the gloves with Dakota Mermis late in the affair. Nylander netted his 10th of the season off the resulting power play, but Anderson quickly quashed any hope of a last-minute comeback.
The Leafs suffered another potential loss to their already beleaguered back end as Jake McCabe left the game after taking a puck to the face in the second period. Forwards Auston Matthews, Matthew Knies and Nicolas Roy all sat out the game.
Toronto has lost seven of eight and sits only one point above Buffalo at the bottom of the Easter Conference standings.
–Field Level Media
