MONTREAL — Noah Dobson and Josh Anderson scored twice to assist the Montreal Canadiens snap a five-game dropping streak with a 5-2 win over the rival Toronto Maple Leafs in a battle of two slumping groups on Saturday evening.
Lane Hutson additionally scored as Montreal (11-7-3) gained for simply the second time in 9 video games after a scorching begin to the season.
Ivan Demidov and Mike Matheson supplied two assists every, and Jakub Dobes made 24 saves for his first win since Oct. 28.
Joseph Woll gave up 4 targets on 25 photographs in his fourth consecutive begin for Toronto (9-10-3) earlier than he was pulled 13:11 into the second interval. Dennis Hildeby stopped all three photographs he confronted in reduction.
Oliver Ekman-Larsson and William Nylander scored for the Leafs, who opened a six-game highway journey with their seventh loss in eight outings. Toronto captain Auston Matthews and winger Matthew Knies, amongst a number of different regulars, have been sidelined with accidents.
The Leafs managed the play early till the Canadiens struck twice 82 seconds aside with targets from Hutson — on a misleading cross-ice feed from Nick Suzuki — and Dobson to take a 2-0 lead at 13:33 within the interval.
That momentum carried into the second, as Dobson walked right into a one-timer teed up by Demidov at 4:09. Anderson then gave the Canadiens a 4-0 result in finish Woll’s evening, earlier than Ekman-Larsson pulled one again late within the interval.
Nylander buried his tenth on the facility play to make it 4-2 with 5:05 remaining within the third, however Anderson scored an empty-net objective with 2:10 remaining to seal the win.
Canadiens: Ahead Florian Xhekaj tallied his first help and dropped the gloves for a giant third-period battle in opposition to Dakota Mermis in his NHL debut. He and bruising defenceman Arber Xhekaj turned the 14th pair of brothers to play in the identical sport for the Canadiens, and the most recent since Andrei and Sergei Kostitsyn in 2010.
Leafs: One other harm for Toronto. Defenceman Jake McCabe exited halfway by way of the second interval after Demidov’s tried cross rode up his stick and hit him within the face.
The Bell Centre crowd started belting out “Olé, Olé” chants with greater than 25 minutes nonetheless to play after Anderson put the Canadiens forward by 4 targets.
In a dismal second interval, the Leafs recorded zero photographs for a stretch of 10:59 (from 16:48 to five:49). The Canadiens registered 10 photographs over the identical timeframe.
Canadiens: Open a three-game highway journey Wednesday in opposition to the Utah Mammoth.
Leafs: Go to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Wednesday.
