Montreal scored five goals in the third period and goaltender Jake Allen made 47 saves Saturday as the struggling Canadiens snapped the host Pittsburgh Penguins’ five-game winning streak, 6-3.
Josh Anderson scored twice, and Jonathan Drouin, Christian Dvorak, Artturi Lehkonen and Tyler Toffoli also scored for the Canadiens, who had been 1-5-1 in their previous seven games and picked up their second win in 12 road games.
Sidney Crosby had a goal and two assists, and Evan Rodrigues and Jeff Carter scored for the Penguins.
Pittsburgh goaltender Casey DeSmith, making just his fourth start and first since Nov. 13, made 28 saves.
Drouin caught up with the puck that hopped over the stick of Pittsburgh defenseman Kris Letang, and he had a couple steps on Letang. Drouin moved in on DeSmith and slipped a backhander between the goalie’s pads for a 1-0 Canadiens lead at 15:34 of the second.
The Penguins tied it during a power play at 2:33 of the third. After Letang worked to keep the puck in the Montreal end, Rodrigues scored on a rising shot from between the hash marks.
The Canadiens regained the lead 32 seconds later. Dvorak was left alone in the low slot and easily tipped in a pass from Sami Niku from the right corner to make it 2-1.
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Montreal struck again at 6:16 of the third for a 3-1 lead. Lehkonen whacked in a rebound from a crowd at the top of the crease.
Carter closed it to 3-2 with 2:37 remaining when his knuckler went in off Allen’s left shoulder.
After DeSmith was pulled, Anderson’s empty-netter made it 4-2 with 1:41 left, and 31 seconds later Crosby made it 4-3.
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Anderson was awarded another goal with 47.4 seconds left when he was hauled down on a breakaway toward an empty net. Toffoli also scored an empty-netter to make it 6-3.
During the game, multiple reports surfaced that Scott Mellanby had resigned as assistant general manager of the Canadiens.
–Field Level Media