Klingberg helps Ducks defeat Canadiens, end road skid at 9

MONTREAL -- John Klingberg scored his second goal of the game at 10:55 of the third period to help the Anaheim Ducks to their second regulation win of the season, 5-2 against the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Thursday.

Trevor Zegras assisted on goals by Troy Terry and Klingberg 28 seconds apart in the first period, Adam Henrique had a goal and an assist, and Lukas Dostal made 23 saves for the Ducks (8-20-3), who were coming off consecutive shutout losses to begin their four-game trip.
"We've got such a good group in here, we're so connected and so tight that I mean at this point nothing really rattles us," Zegras said. "We know where we're at and we just kind of stick together in these situations, and obviously that Klingberg goal was a big one."

Anaheim had lost nine straight on the road (0-7-2).
"We still didn't sustain a full 60 (minutes) for me, but we sustained much more than we have been," Ducks coach Dallas Eakins said. "You know when you're a team like we are right now in a kind of full rebuild mode it is tough to sustain it, but that's our goal every night. … I do think we're better than our record, but our record is our record and we own it. So I did like how we played overall. I'd still like a couple of those five, six-minute spurts back as well."
Cole Caufield scored twice in the third for the Canadiens (14-14-2), who lost 3-2 at the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday. Jake Allen made 27 saves.
"It's our job, you've got to come to work ready to go no matter what," Caufield said. "Even if it was a back to back, traveling last night, we had the things to take care of ourselves. So, there's no reason for us to come out flat like we did tonight."

Klingberg gave Anaheim its second lead at 3-2 on a slap shot from the right point. Henrique scored into an empty net with 1:28 remaining to make it 4-2, and Frank Vatrano scored another empty-net goal with nine seconds left for the 5-2 final.
"When it was 2-2, I still believed in the guys," Dostal said. "We were dumping the puck, we were in their zone a lot in the third period. … I just felt that we were going to get it tonight."
The Ducks' only other regulation win was a 3-2 victory against the New York Rangers on Nov. 23.
"They're struggling, but anyone can beat anyone in this league," Allen said. "But we definitely wanted to get one of the two here in this back to back, and we're going to have a big test against the [Tampa Bay] Lightning (on Saturday) before we hit the road before Christmas. So, regroup and hope we bring our A-game Saturday."
Terry gave Anaheim a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 17:28 of the first when he redirected Zegras' pass between Allen's pads.
Klingberg made it 2-0 at 17:56 when he shot past Allen from the slot off a pass from Zegras.
Caufield cut it to 2-1 at 3:11 of the third with Montreal's first power-play goal in six games.
"In the sense of the game, it was huge," Caufield said about ending the Canadiens' 0-for-23 drought with the man-advantage.

Caufield then tied it 2-2 at 6:37 with his team-leading 18th goal on a wraparound, his second goal in 3:26.
NOTES: Zegras had his eighth multipoint game this season, tying Terry for the most on the Ducks. Zegras has 29 multipoint games, the most by any Anaheim player since he debuted in the NHL in 2020-21. … It was the third time the Ducks led after two periods this season (2-0-1). … Caufield is the third Canadiens player since 1990-91 to score at least 18 goals in his first 30 games of a season (Tyler Toffoli, 18, 2020-21; Brian Savage, 19, 1995-96).