Recap: Ducks Strike Twice on Power Play to Earn 3-2 Win over Montreal

Mason McTavish broke a third-period tie with a power-play goal and John Gibson made 26 saves, powering the Ducks to a 3-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens tonight at Honda Center.
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With the win, Anaheim extended its point streak to a season-tying five games (3-0-2) and capped a brief three-game homestand with five of six possible standings points (2-0-1).

McTavish, Jayson Megna and Jakob Silfverberg scored for Anaheim, with McTavish delivering the decisive marker just past the midway point of the third period. Derek Grant earned the hosts' lone multi-point performance with a pair of assists.
Cam Fowler, Kevin Shattenkirk, Trevor Zegras and Max Comtois also collected assists in the win.
Gibson continued his outstanding second half of the season with the latest in a line of masterful recent performances, stopping 26-of-28 Montreal shots. Across his last five starts, Gibson owns a 3-0-2 record with a .940 save percentage.
Jonathan Drouin and Christian Dvorak scored for Montreal. Goaltender Sam Montembeault made 30 saves in his 13th regulation defeat of the season.
The night got off to a, for lack of a better word, painful start for Anaheim and in particular Gibson. Just over a minute after the opening faceoff, defenseman Mike Matheson fired a shot from the right circle that appeared to catch the goaltender quite uncomfortably in his midsection. With Gibson knelt over in pain as the puck trickled behind him, Drouin got it first, swiping the rebound in an empty net to put Montreal ahead.
The goal snapped an incredible streak for Drouin, who collected each of his first 18 points of the season with assists (0-18=18). Only four forwards in NHL history have recorded more assists before than their first goal of the season: Alex Delvecchio (22, 1969-70), Martin Erat (21, 2013-14), Andrew Cassels (20, 1994-95) and Mathew Barzal (19, 2022-23).
Matheson, who remained with Montreal despite a flurry of trade deadline rumors, has points in six of his last seven games (2-5=7). Despite dealing with two separate injuries this season limiting him to 28 games played thus far, Matheson leads Montreal blueliners in scoring (4-14=18) and assists.
With the secondary assist, winger Josh Anderson now sits three points shy of 200 for his NHL career.
Anaheim answered right back from its early deficit though, scoring on its first shot of the game to pull even. As Comtois raced down right wing, he tried to feather a pass to Megna on the backdoor. Instead, the pass caromed off defenseman Johnathan Kovacevic in front and bounced right to Megna, who swiped it past the sliding Montembeault for his second goal as a Duck.

The goal was the 12th of Megna's NHL career, and his second in 48 games with Anaheim this season. The 33-year-old already owns a career-high in assists (five) and now sits two points shy of his single-season best in scoring (2-5=7).
Montreal nearly reclaimed the lead early in the third when the visitors hit back-to-back posts mere seconds apart, but the so-called "hockey gods" would have nothing to do with the go-ahead coming as a result of a clear dive by Matheson, as both post shots flew to safety in the corner.
Instead it would be Anaheim breaking through for the go-ahead goal on the power-play, courtesy of McTavish and his customary one-timer, and then again moments later for what would prove to be a massive insurance goal.
The first came as Anaheim worked the puck around the edge of the zone, lulling the Montreal defense to sleep before Fowler put a one-time dish right in McTavish's wheelhouse and the rookie did the rest, blasting a slapshot over Montembeault's shoulder to give the Ducks their first lead of the night.

McTavish owns 1-5=6 points in his last three games and now sits seven points shy of the NHL lead among rookies (14-23=37).
The goal also tied McTavish with former Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf (14) for sixth-most in a single season by a Ducks rookie.
With the assist, Fowler now has 10 points in his last nine games, second among all NHL defensemen in that span.
Zegras drew the secondary assist, giving him five points in his last four games (1-4=5). He paces the Ducks in points, goals and assists.
Four minutes later, Silfverberg was the beneficiary of a heads-up play by Grant, and capitalized on the sudden opportunity to double the lead. Seconds after Shattenkirk's point shot was blocked, it appeared a Montreal defender would be able to clear it away from the crease, but Grant got to it first, getting just enough of the loose puck to poke it to Silfverberg for a one-timer that whizzed by Montembeault from the low slot.

Silfverberg has scored in four of his last five games (4-0=4), including two power-play goals. The 10th-year Duck is now two goals shy of matching Steve Rucchin (153) for sixth-most in Ducks history and three short of his longtime teammate Rickard Rakell (154) for fifth.
With two assists on the night, Grant posted his second multi-point effort of the season.
Montreal got back within a goal with 30 seconds to play in regulation on another tough break for Gibson, seemingly the only way pucks would go past him on this night. This time a point shot by Drouin bounced off Christian Dvorak and popped right to Suzuki alone at the side of the net for the tap-in goal past a sprawled Gibson.
The good fortune ran out for the visitors from that point forward though, as one final stop from Gibson sealed Anaheim's 3-2 win in the homestand finale.
The Ducks begin a three-game road trip Tuesday in Seattle.