In Montreal, the Canadiens took a 3-0 first period lead over the visiting Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday and then held off a brief rally in the third period for a 5-2 win.
“Our start was great, and when you’re feeling that way, it’s tough to come from behind,” Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher said. “So, to get out front in these games is important and we kept playing good hockey right up until a little bit in the third period [when] we had some lapses.”
Nick Suzuki gave scored to give the Habs a 1-0 lead with just 55 seconds gone in the fist period.
Arber Xhekaj pushed the lead to 2-0 at 8:47 of the frame.
Kirby Dach scored the fist of his two goals on the night to extend the advantage to 3-0, his strike came at 12:23.
“We knew they were coming off the back to back, we were coming off a back to back, so the start was crucial,” Dach said. “And I feel like through 40 minutes, we dictated the play and we had a good team game going.
“We let off the gas a little bit at the start of the third, and they capitalized. It was good maturity for our group to kind of lock it down and finish the game strong.”
Montreal improved to 7-6-1.
Sam Montembeault made 31 saves in the Montreal win.
“Right from the start we were chasing, and I don’t think we came out the way we wanted,” Vancouver forward Elias Pettersson said. “And they were hungrier than us to start.”
Luke Schenn and Nils Hoglander struck for the Canucks goals in the third period to cut the Habs lead at the time down to 4-2.
Vancouver dropped to 4-7-3.
“We just wanted to play on top of them tonight,” Xhekaj said. “They play a fast game and they got on top of guys, but we just wanted to play on top of them. And, obviously, for us to take advantage of that and score some goals – it was big for us.”
Mike Hoffman scored for Montreal in the middle frame to give them a 4-1 lead.
“There’s no excuse for the way we started tonight,” Canucks forward Bo Horvat said. “I thought there were parts of our game that I really liked, but it just obviously wasn’t good enough all around.”
Dach added a late empty-net goal for the 5-2 final.
Thatcher Demko made 24 saves in the Canucks loss.
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