RECAP: Blackhawks Drop Fourth Straight in Montreal

MONTREAL -- Zachary Bolduc scored twice, Lane Hutson had three assists, and the Montreal Canadiens sent the Chicago Blackhawks to their fourth straight loss, 4-1 at Bell Centre on Thursday.

Nick Suzuki had a goal and an assist, and Jakub Dobes made 14 saves for Montreal (18-12-4), which is 3-1-1 in its past five games.

“I think we stood up as a team and showed that we had character tonight,” Bolduc said.

There were three successful video review challenges during the game, including two by Chicago coach Jeff Blashill, each of which resulted in a goal being disallowed.

“That’s a first, for sure, but we’re glad we were just on the right side of it once and we found a way to win,” Hutson said.

Frank Nazar scored his first goal since Oct. 28, and Spencer Knight made 31 saves for Chicago (13-15-6), which has lost six of its past seven games.

“I just thought too many guys had like their ‘C’ game,” Blashill said. “You’re not going to have your ‘A-plus’ game every night, but you’ve got to find a way to make sure when you don’t have that you have a ‘B-plus’ game. Not necessarily even the mentality of how you play, just the actual level which you play at. So that’s part of the process of making sure that we figure that out.”

Nazar gave Chicago a 1-0 lead at 7:27 of the first period. He was in front of the net to tip in Matt Grzelcyk’s pass from the left point, ending his 21-game goal drought.

Bolduc tied it 1-1 at 14:23 when he one-timed a shot past Knight’s glove from the middle of the slot on a pass from Cole Caufield for his first goal at home.

“It’s super special,” Bolduc said. “I mean it took me 19 games, so a lot of work behind that. But I’m super happy to share that moment with my parents that are here tonight. My whole family’s here, one of my best friends is here too, so I’m super happy.”

Bolduc scored his second straight goal 20 seconds into the third period to put the Canadiens up 2-1. He was in front of the net to deflect Hutson’s shot from the point over Knight.

“He’s got a great shot,” Hutson said. “He’s had some great looks at home and it’s good to see him finally get rewarded.”

Noah Dobson made it 3-1 at 10:00 when he drove to the net and knocked down a rebound of Ivan Demidov’s shot with his glove before putting a backhand on Knight, who ultimately knocked the puck over the goal line with his glove.

“That’s unfortunate but I thought [Knight] played really well,” Blashill said. “I thought he gave us a chance to win. I thought for the most part we defended pretty good for two periods, we contested a lot of their chances, but he did a good job as well.”

Suzuki shot into an empty net at 16:29 for the 4-1 final.

“I think we were right there with them throughout the first and second,” Nazar said. “We’ve just got to do a better job of sticking to our game and not letting them take over the third.”

The Blackhawks had a goal by Alex Vlasic disallowed at 4:07 of the first period after Montreal coach Martin St. Louis challenged that Ilya Mikheyev committed goaltender interference on the play.

Montreal had a potential power-play goal by Brendan Gallagher waved off at 16:57 of the second when Chicago successfully challenged that the Canadiens were offside on the play.

Another apparent Montreal goal in the third was reversed by a second successful video challenge by the Blackhawks, which confirmed the Canadiens were again offside at 0:47 on the scoring play.

“You try not to think about it too much, just go out there and be better, right?” Nazar said. “Because if we’re letting up a goal, we’ve got to rely on the officials to go back and look at it, coach’s challenge, you know, we’re doing something wrong.”

NOTES: Demidov got his 20th NHL assist in his 36th game, tying Doug Risebrough for the fourth-fastest Canadiens player to reach that mark. Hutson had 20 assists through his first 29 NHL games, and Kjell Dahlin and Mats Naslund each got their 20th assist in their 33rd game, respectively. … Dobes has 12 wins and is tied with Yaroslav Askarov of the San Jose Sharks for the most by a rookie this season. Three Canadiens goalies have led the NHL in wins by a rookie in one season, Mike Condon (21 wins in 2015-16), Carey Price (24 in 2007-08) and Patrick Roy (23 in 1985-86).