It looked like the good times were going to continue rolling for the Canadiens. Instead, they blew an early three-goal lead to fall 7-3 to the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Bell Centre on Saturday night.
Montreal was up 3-0 after the first period, only to get counterpunched by the Atlantic Division-leading Leafs to the tune of seven unanswered goals the rest of the way.
Joseph Woll made 32 saves for the Leafs in the win. Sam Montembeault started at the other end and allowed six goals on 33 shots.
Kirby Dach, Patrik Laine and Josh Anderson were the goal scorers for the Habs.
At 14:52 of the first period on a delayed penalty call, Dach was the bumper in the slot and he blasted a one-timer past Woll for the game’s first goal.
The Canadiens followed that up with two goals in nine seconds. Laine first scored on a one-timer blast at the tail end of an Auston Matthews double-minor for high-sticking Nick Suzuki. Then, Anderson scored in true powerhouse fashion, forcing his way to the goal off the centre ice draw to make it 3-0.
Ryan Reaves entered the lineup for the Leafs and was looking to dance with fellow heavyweight Arber Xhekaj at the end of the opening frame, but the Habs defenceman was quick to remind the veteran forward Montreal held the advantage.
Then in the second period, Xhekaj flattened Reaves with an open-ice body check.
The Leafs then started to build their comeback. Christian Dvorak missed a scoring chance in the offensive zone, resulting in an odd-man rush heading the other way. Bobby McMann finished with a shot off the rush to get the Leafs on the board at 10:28 of the second period. Habs up 3-1.
The Leafs then made it a one-goal game with 1:14 left in the second period with a power-play marker from a Nick Robertson deflection. It was 3-2 Habs after 40 minutes.
On to the third period. Only 24 seconds in the third period, William Nylander won a footrace against Lane Hutson and beat Montembeault to tie the game at 3-3.
The Leafs then got their second power play of the night from an Oliver Ekman-Larsson shot through traffic. Toronto got their first lead of the night 4-3.
Just as a four-on-four ended, putting the Habs on a brief power play, Auston Matthews scored a shorthanded goal to extend Toronto’s lead to 5-3.
The collapse was complete when Steven Lorentz was left all alone in front and he beat Montembeault to make it 6-3 Toronto. The Canadiens kept trying to claw their way back, but Leafs goaltender Joseph Woll did everything he could to protect their lead, including using the knob of his stick.
Toronto added an empty-net goal to make it 7-3. After Montreal opened with three straight, the Leafs responded with seven unanswered goals. The last time the Leafs scored seven against the Habs? It was Dec. 17, 1942, in an 8-1 victory, according to Sportsnet Stats.
Lane Hutson collected an assist to continue to lead the NHL rookie scoring race, but he was a minus-5 in the loss.
The Canadiens entered the night 11-2-1 in their last 14 games. They also collected points in six consecutive games (5-0-1). So while a fall from such heights was inevitable, blowing a three-goal lead on Saturday night against the Leafs still stings. A test for the resurgent Habs will be how they rebound from the thrashing.
We won’t have to wait long to see which Habs team shows up next because they play the Rangers on Sunday. The Liveblog commenters will be watching.
3. “I had friends call me at 3-0. All yippee yippee gloat gloat. I learned years ago … Don’t yippee yippee gloat gloat unless you up by by three goals with 10 seconds left.” — Carin Latzel
2. “Ok, we have had a successful run after getting blown out by Pittsburgh. So tomorrow, we start a new successful run after tonight’s blow out.” — Bob Taylor
1. “Big dose of reality, after the first period, they thought it was going to be laugher, and let a better team back into the game and did not have an answer. Hope lesson learned, cannot put foot off the peddle, I don’t think it would have mattered — Woll was excellent. Nice run the last 10-15 games, but not part of the big boys yet.” — User 079a128