In Montreal, former Canadiens skater Artturi Lehkonen hit for a double in the first period and had an assist as the his new team, the Colorado Avalanche dismantled Montreal, 48-4 on Monday night.
Lehkonen was skating in Montreal since being acquired by the Avs in 2022.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever heard a fan base cheer for one guy on the other team when he scores,” Colorado defenseman Cale Makar said. “So, that was a pretty cool experience when that happened. It felt like we were at a home game.”
The Avs had a 4-0 lead in the first period with Lehkonen scoring the first and fourth goals in the period.
Alexandar Georgiev made 15 saves.
Bowen Byram and Matt Nieto also scored in the first period for the Avalanche, their strikes gave Colorado a 3-0 lead.
Colorado improved to 37-22-6, they scored on all three power play chances.
“That’s exactly how we would have liked to start,” Avalanche forward Logan O’Connor said. “I think we didn’t end the game on the right note; for example, we thought we could have been a little tighter and better in the third period. But we’re definitely happy with the win overall to start this four-game road trip off.”
Josh Anderson stopped the Avs’ first period run to send the game to the second period, 4-*1 to Colorado.
In the middle frame, Colorado just added to Montreal’s misery as Mikko Rantanen scored to make it 5-1 to the Avs at 1:48, and J.T. Compher pushed the lead to 6-1.
Montreal dropped to 26-35-6 off their seventh straight loss. They are 0-5-2 in the skid.
Denis Gurianov scored off the power play to get on back for the Habs and make it 6-2 after 40 minutes of play.
Nathan MacKinnon and Valeri Nichushkin scored power play goals in the third period that wrapped around a pair of strikes by the Canadiens for the 6-2 final.
“They have so much motion and movement,” Montreal coach Martin St. Louis said. “It’s positionless offense and it can get very confusing, and I think we just got away from how we want to defend that. We were just so preoccupied with the movement instead of sticking to how we’re supposed to defend it.
“And I definitely saw improvement, so we used the next two periods, especially the third, to try to correct ourselves a little bit and learn from it.”
Chris Wideman and Mike Matheson were the third period strikers for Montreal.
Lehkonen left the game after breaking a finger. Avs coach Jared Bednar said after the match that Lehkonen would have surgery.
“He’ll leave tomorrow from Toronto to head back and then follow it up with surgery the next day,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. ” … I know he got hit with a shot.”
Jake Allen got the start for the Canadiens, and made nine saves before getting the hook in the middle frame. He surrendered six goals to the Avs.
“Jake’s not to blame,” Canadiens defenseman David Savard said. “We played poorly in front of him. We left him on his own. It’s very disappointing after all he has done for us this season.”
Sam Montembeault made 15 saves in a mop up role.
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