In Montreal, Sam Montembeault made 35 saves and the Canadiens defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-2, on Monday.
“I think you need some swagger and I think we’re building a lot of swagger right now,” Montreal coach Martin St. Louis said. “And swagger is not like cockiness or arrogance, it’s just like believing in yourself and feeling good about yourself, and I think we have that. Swagger is so important in this league to be successful.”
The Habs held a 5-0 lead through 40 minutes of play and then held off the Leafs in the third .
The win was the third straight for Montreal, a season high.
Ilya Mikheyev and Pierre Engvall score for Toronto in the third to make the score a bit more respectable.
“Probably as disappointing of a game for us this year,” Toronto’s John Tavares said. “We have to clean up what we’re giving up off the rush. It’s obviously something that is continuously giving the other team opportunities and life, and certainly for them tonight they generated a lot off of that.”
The Maple Leafs dropped to 32-14-3.
“We believe in our group and we believe we’re a good team and we never want to drop two in a row, so we’ve got to put the fire out now,” the Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews said. “Not a whole lot of good in this one tonight, but you’ve got to take the good and take the bad and move on to the next game, and we’re right back at it tomorrow (at the Columbus Blue Jackets).”
Josh Anderson hit for a double and three points in the Habs win.
Montreal improved to 11-33-7.
Anderson and Cole Caufield scored in the opening frame for a 2-0 lead.
“We’re playing for each other, and I think the energy in the room is a lot higher right now,” Caufield said. “I think we’ve been playing well, even those games before we started this three-game win streak. But I just love the way we’re playing right now.”
The Canadiens then added three more in the second period.
“[St. Louis] trusts me, he’s putting me out there in situations to succeed,” Caufield said. “I’m playing with two great players too (Anderson and Nick Suzuki), so that helps. But he trusts my game and I think that’s the biggest part for me. I’ve just got to keep playing the right way and it’ll keep coming like that.”
Mike Hoffman and Rem Pitlick scored around Anderson’s second of the game for a 5-0 advantage through 40 minutes.
Petr Mrazek made 20 saves in the Maple Leafs loss.
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