ANA@MTL: Game recap

MONTREAL -- The Canadiens were edged 5-4 by the Ducks on Thursday night at the Bell Centre.

It was Montreal's first home game since December 16.
Goaltender Cayden Primeau made his third consecutive start.

Up front, there was only one change. Lukas Vejdemo replaced Christian Dvorak, who was injured on Monday night in Minnesota.
It marked Vejdemo's first game since January 12.

Anaheim struck first when Sam Carrick capped a partial breakaway on Primeau with his ninth goal of the season just 8:14 into the opening frame.
Dallas Eakins' squad then took full advantage of a four-minute high-sticking penalty to Laurent Dauphin to score another two goals courtesy of Cam Fowler (15:12) and Troy Terry (17:06).
It was Fowler's sixth goal of the year, while Terry registered his team-leading 24th strike.
The Ducks led 3-0 after 20 minutes.
Head coach Dominique Ducharme elected to pull Primeau to start the second period after he surrendered three goals on just nine shots.

Sam Montembeault entered the contest, which sparked Montreal and led to Jake Evans' tally just 1:15 into the stanza.
It was Evans' fifth goal of the year. Rem Pitlick and Josh Anderson collected the assists.

The Ducks responded only 10 seconds later when Trevor Zegras' highlight-reel snipe put the visitors up 4-1.
It was Zegras' 11th goal of the campaign.
Artturi Lehkonen cut into Anaheim's advantage just before the midway point of the period with a power play goal on goaltender Anthony Stolarz.
His sixth marker of the season was assisted by Mike Hoffman and Tyler Toffoli.

Zegras added his second goal of the night just four minutes later to give Anaheim a commanding 5-2 lead.
That's the way things stood after 40 minutes.
Evans added another goal just 1:24 into the third period with an outstanding solo effort.
Pitlick was credited with the lone assist on the play.

The Canadiens kept fighting back and were rewarded with a goal by Dauphin on a penalty shot with 5:58 left in regulation.
Dauphin's second goal of the year cut the Ducks' lead to one.

That's the way this one finished.
Up next for the Canadiens are back-to-back weekend matchups against the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday and the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday.
Puck drop for both games is 7:00 p.m. at the Bell Centre.