MTL@PIT: Game recap

PITTSBURGH - The Canadiens got their revenge on the Penguins and closed out their three-game road trip on a high, emerging victorious with a wild 6-3 win in Pittsburgh on Saturday night.

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After Sam Montembeault guarded the net on Friday in Buffalo, it was Jake Allen's turn to start against the Penguins.
And, with Chris Wideman out with an upper-body injury, Dominique Ducharme went back to using 12 forwards and six defensemen, with Michael Pezzetta drawing back into the lineup.
It was a milestone night for Tyler Toffoli, who skated in his 600th career NHL game.

The teams skated to a scoreless tie in the first period, with the Montreal registering eight shots on goal on Pittsburgh starter Casey DeSmith. The Pens had 14 shots of their own in the opening frame.
Jonathan Drouin opened the scoring in the second stanza when he beat Kris Letang to a loose puck in the neutral zone, breaking away and dangling before slipping it by DeSmith for his third of the season.
There were no assists on the play.

After blanking the Pens in the first, Allen enjoyed an even stronger second period as he stopped all 17 Pittsburgh shots he faced.
Allen got a bit of support from rookie defenseman Mattias Norlinder, who helped keep the puck from crossing the goal line after a Dominik Simon shot snuck by him not long after Drouin's tally.
Tweet from @CanadiensMTL: Mattias N🚫-rlinder!#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/tqxGocCiZJ
The Canadiens led 1-0 after 40 minutes, while Pittsburgh held a 31-21 edge in shots.
The Penguins ended Allen's shutout bid early in the third. With Artturi Lehkonen in the box for tripping, Sidney Crosby made a perfect one-time pass to Evan Rodrigues who wristed it from above the hashmarks for his eighth of the campaign.
Crosby and Jake Guentzel got the assists.
Montreal wouldn't take long to reply, however. Just 32 seconds later, after Josh Anderson intercepted the puck in the Habs' defensive end and drove it into the Pittsburgh zone, Sami Niku fed Christian Dvorak in the slot and he tapped it in to give Montreal its second lead of the night.
It was Dvorak's fourth tally of the season. Niku and Anderson each picked up an assist on the play.

Allen's solid night continued, including some highway robbery on Rodrigues from in-close with his glove.

The Habs padded their lead a bit later in the period. Cole Caufield tried to send a blocked shot from Norlinder through some traffic and as the puck rolled through, Lehkonen whacked it from the slot and beat DeSmith. The 3-1 marker was Lehkonen's third of the season - and third in four games.
Caufield and Norlinder earned assists on the goal. It was Norlinder's first career NHL point.

With DeSmith pulled in favor of an extra attacker, the Penguins cut the Habs' lead to one when Jeff Carter pounced on a loose puck in the slot and found the back of the net, registering his fifth of the season.
Kasperi Kapanen and Crosby got assists on the tally.
Pittsburgh kept the net open in an attempt to square things up, but Josh Anderson gave Montreal some insurance with an empty-netter to make it 4-2.

The Pens weren't done yet, however, as the Kapanen-Carter-Crosby line combined for a tic-tac-toe that finished with Crosby scoring from down on one knee to Allen's right.
Anderson was assessed a second empty-net goal after as he was hauled down while breaking away towards the vacated Pittsburgh crease.

Toffoli capped off his milestone game with an empty-netter of his own.

A wild finish to the game ended with a 6-3 score in Montreal's favor. Allen made 47 saves, a new career high, earning his fifth win of 2021-22. He was named second star of the game. And with a three-point night, six shots, a plus-4 differential, a pair of hits, and three blocked shots, Anderson was given the nod as the game's first star.
With the win, the Habs snapped the Penguins' win streak, which started on November 18 in Montreal, at five games.
The Canadiens now head back to Montreal, and they'll welcome the Vancouver Canucks to the Bell Centre on Monday. For tickets to the game,
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