Canadiens hold off Duchene, Predators for first win in five games

MONTREAL --The Montreal Canadiens withstood Matt Duchene's natural hat trick in the third period for a 6-3 win against the Nashville Predators at Bell Centre on Saturday.

Ryan Poehling scored goals 37 seconds apart in a four-goal second period for Montreal (5-13-2), which was 0-3-1 in its previous four games. Tyler Toffoli had a goal and two assists and Sam Montembeault made 33 saves.
"I felt like everyone was involved, everyone felt like they were able to get engaged in the game and everyone contributed," Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher said.
The Canadiens were coming off a 6-0 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday, when Montembeault allowed one goal on 12 shots in the third period after relieving Cayden Primeau.
"Sam started well in net and we were engaged," Montreal coach Dominique Ducharme said. "We were a lot sharper mentally and it showed in the way we executed."

Juuse Saros allowed five goals on 19 shots for Nashville (9-7-1) before being replaced in the second period by David Rittich, who made nine saves.
"It wasn't necessarily where [Saros] was bad," Predators coach John Hynes said. "Montreal scored, and we had a couple of deflections, one hits a skate, a backdoor tap-in on the penalty kill, so it's not really the goalie's fault. It's more like he's got to get out of there and bring 'Ritter' in.
"… It didn't change the momentum just because of the goalie change. [Rittich] made some good saves and then we got some opportunities to close in the third period, but it wasn't enough for us tonight."
Duchene made it 5-1 with a power-play goal at 6:36 of the third.
He scored again on the power play at 12:53 with a one-timer from the slot before completing the hat trick at 16:27 to cut Montreal's lead to 5-3.
"I think it shows a lot of character," Predators captain Roman Josi said. "I think a 5-0 game it's easy to just go out there and play and be negative. And I think we had a good attitude. We tried to stay positive. We knew we could play a lot better, but we told ourselves, 'Let's just go play our style, play our game and see what happens."

Toffoli scored into an empty net at 18:30 for the 6-3 final.
"The feeling on the bench, we were still in a really good position, we knew we were fine," Gallagher said. "Obviously, the third one goes in, you've got to do a job for three minutes, which we did. But we'll look at it. They made some plays, put some pucks in our net, but overall we liked our effort."
Artturi Lehkonen put the Canadiens ahead 1-0 when he jammed in a loose puck in the crease at 2:41 of the first.
Christian Dvorak increased the lead to 2-0 at 1:06 of the second. He one-timed Josh Anderson's backhand pass across the crease after Jonathan Drouin got his stick on Saros' clearing attempt.
Gallagher made it 3-0 with a power-play goal at 3:32, redirecting Drouin's centering pass into an open net.

Poehling, who had one goal in five games since being recalled from Laval of the American Hockey League on Nov. 10, made it 4-0 with a wrist shot over Saros' glove from the left face-off dot at 9:31.
He scored his second straight at 10:08 with a one-timer off Toffoli's flip pass from the top of the slot to make it 5-0.
"Alex Belzile, we were linemates in Laval for a bit, he says, 'Shoot or shoot,'" Poehling said. "So it was kind of funny, he texted me after the game and said the exact same thing. But that's a true thing. You've just got to get pucks to the net, and the more you get them there, the more they'll go in. So I've been focused on that."
The Predators also lost 3-0 at the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday on an abbreviated road trip to Canada that included a game at the Ottawa Senators on Thursday that was postponed because of Ottawa's COVID-19 outbreak.
"I just think we've got to reset here," Hynes said, "And we've got to make sure that we're coming back to the rink on Monday ready to learn from this experience of what it is these last two games. We've got to elevate our plays in certain areas and that will be our focus."
NOTES: A Nashville goal at 11:28 of the first was disallowed because the referee ruled Luke Kunin used his arm to direct the puck into the net. … Duchene scored his goals 9:51 apart, the fourth fastest hat trick by a Predators player. Rocco Grimaldi scored three goals in 2:34 on March 25, 2021, followed by Steve Sullivan (5:56; Dec. 14, 2006) and Filip Forsberg (8:37; Feb. 21, 2017). … The Canadiens dressed seven defensemen and 11 forwards. … It was Montembeault's first NHL win in seven starts and 10 games since Feb. 11, 2020, when he made 25 saves for the Florida Panthers in a 5-3 win at the New Jersey Devils. … Poehling's goals were the fastest by a Montreal player since Guillaume Latendresse scored twice in 31 seconds on Nov. 13, 2006.