In Brooklyn. the New York Islanders’ slide continued Tuesday night with a 6-2 loss to the Montreal Canadiens.
The Isles have four straight and eight of 10.
Carey Price got the win for the Canadiens – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
Brendan Gallagher and Joel Armia led the Habs with a goal apiece and two points each.
The Canadiens hung three goals on the Isles to start the game.
“No words, really,” Islanders head coach Barry Trotz said. “I didn’t expect that. We had a pretty pointed meeting and a pretty pointed practice (Monday) that we need to raise our battle level a little bit.
“We’ve got to put more skin in the game. We don’t have enough skin in the game, and you can’t win at this time of year unless you put more skin in the game to earn points. We got exactly what we deserved today.”
Carey Price made 20 saves to get the win.
“When you don’t give them anything easy, it helps when you have [Price] back there,” Gallagher said.
Gallagher, Jeff Petry and Charles Hudon struck in the first period for the lead.
“I thought we were pretty solid in all areas,” Canadiens coach Claude Julien said. “We scored goals by going to the net, we created some traffic there. I thought we played well defensively; we didn’t give them much. At the end they got those power plays, but other than that, at 5-on-5 I thought we did a great job protecting the middle of the ice. Guys were in shooting lanes, guys were killing plays. I think we did a good job overall. I thought it was a solid game.”
Paul Byron made it 4-0 in the middle frame.
Broke Nelson broke through to cut the lead.
Jordan Weal also scored for the Habs.
Ryan Pulock made it respectable with a goal for New York.
“There’s winning and losing, but it’s more frustrating when you don’t get an effort,” Pulock said. “We just didn’t have that tonight. We weren’t ourselves.”
[WATCH: All Canadiens vs. Islanders highlights]
Thomas Greiss got the start but given the hook at the start of the middle frame after yielding three goals and making just nine saves in the opening period of play.
“You’ve got to come ready to go, and that’s mental,” the Islanders’ Anders Lee said. “You put yourself in a position physically each night to be prepared and ready to go. The mental side of it will get you through everything.”
Semyon Varlamov made 12 saves in a mop up role.
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