MONTREAL (AP) — The Montreal Canadiens broke out for a four-goal second period and held on for a 6-3 win over the Nashville Predators on Saturday night despite a third-period hat trick from Matt Duchene.
Montreal snapped its four-game losing skid, backed by two goals from Ryan Poehling, and tallies from Artturi Lehkonen, Christian Dvorak, Brendan Gallagher and Tyler Toffoli.
Toffoli, Jonathan Drouin and Chris Wideman picked up two assists each, while Samuel Montembeault allowed three goals on 36 shots.
Duchene scored his three goals in less than 10 minutes for the Predators, who pulled goalie Juuse Saros in the second period after allowing five goals on 19 shots. David Rittich blocked all nine shots in relief.
Lehkonen broke the ice 2:41 into the game, recovering the puck in Saros’ crease and tapping it in. Montreal doubled its lead at the start of the second period when Josh Anderson made a no-look backhand pass for Dvorak.
Gallagher made it 3-0 for the Habs on the power play at 3:32. Then Poehling notched two consecutive goals in the span of 37 seconds for Montreal’s fourth and fifth unanswered goals of the night at 9:31 and 10:08 to complete the four-goal second period.
Duchene scored power-play goals at 6:36 and 12:53 of the third period before completing his hat trick at even strength with three and a half minutes left to bring the Predators within two.
But the Preds pulled their goalie, and Toffoli sealed the win with an empty-netter.
UP NEXT
Predators: Host Anaheim on Monday night.
Canadiens: At Washington on Wednesday night.
