Rookie Oliver Kapanen and Philip Danault each scored in the first period to lift the host Montreal Canadiens to a 3-1 victory over the struggling Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday night.
Jake Evans converted into the empty net with 28 seconds remaining in the third period to seal the Canadiens’ third win in four meetings with the Maple Leafs this season.
Jakub Dobe made 17 saves, including a stellar right pad stop on Toronto captain Auston Matthews, to improve to 11-1-2 in his last 14 games.
Montreal leading scorer Cole Caufield sustained an apparent injury and was limited to just 10:27 of ice time. He was seen skating gingerly during a television timeout and played sparingly in the third period.
Canadiens defenseman Lane Hutson notched an assist to extend his point streak to four games.
William Nylander scored in the second period, and Joseph Woll stopped 30 shots for the Maple Leafs, who have now lost eight straight games (0-6-2) since the Olympic break.
Montreal dominated Toronto in the first period, registering an 18-5 shot advantage and building a 2-0 lead.
Kapanen backhanded a loose puck past Woll from the doorstep to open the scoring at 4:46 of the first period for his 20th goal of the season. Kapanen also scored in Montreal’s 5-2 loss to Toronto on Oct. 8.
Just under 10 minutes later, defenseman Kaiden Guhle’s dump-in took a fortuitous bounce and landed in front of the net. Danault alertly settled the rolling puck and scored from in close for his fifth goal of the season, all since he was acquired from the Los Angeles Kings.
Nylander converted a return pass through the slot from Easton Cowan before scoring from a sharp angle to halve the deficit with 5:27 remaining in the second period. Nylander scored his 22nd goal of the season and the fourth during his ongoing six-game point streak.
