Tyler Toffoli and Josh Anderson each had two goals as the Montreal Canadiens won their fourth straight meeting against the visiting Vancouver Canucks, 5-3 on Tuesday night.
Jeff Petry notched a goal with an assist, Nick Suzuki recorded two assists and Jake Allen made 36 saves for his third win in four starts this season for Montreal, which has one regulation defeat over its 10 games. The Canadiens, who won 6-2 over Vancouver on Monday, own a 28-16 scoring advantage while going 4-0-1 this season against the Canucks. They’re 12-0-2 in the last 14 games versus Vancouver.
Toffoli, who added an assist and is among the NHL’s top scorers, has registered eight of his nine goals on the season against Vancouver — the team he played 10 games with in 2019-20.
Antoine Roussel, Elias Pettersson and Tanner Pearson scored for the Canucks, who won four straight prior to facing the Canadiens this week. The Canucks’ Thatcher Demko stopped 28 of 32 shots after saving 100 of 103 to win his previous three starts.
Montreal opened the scoring after Anderson muscled his way to net to push in a rebound of Ben Chiarot’s shot with 6:07 left in the first period. A little more than three minutes later, Anderson made it 2-0 as he redirected in a Brett Kulak shot for his sixth goal.
The Canucks cut that deficit in half when Roussel came out of the penalty box and stuck home the second rebound off an Allen save at 4:20 into the middle period.
Toffoli gave the Canadiens their two-goal advantage back with 7:31 left in the frame when he deflected in Joel Edmundson’s shot. Toffoli’s second came a little more than three minutes later. He used some nifty stick work against Vancouver’s Jordie Benn, then flipped a backhander by Demko and into the top corner of the net to make it 4-1.
Pettersson’s fourth goal of the season came on the power play with a shot from the near circle at 53 seconds into the final period. With Vancouver’s net empty, Pearson scored amid a scrum with 42 seconds to play before Petry’s empty-netter.
Montreal captain Shea Weber, who recorded an assist, played in his 1,000th career game Tuesday.
Read More: NHL power rankings: Vegas Golden Knights surge to the top
–Field Level Media