Texier’s 3 points propel Canadiens to win against Flames

MONTREAL -- Alexandre Texier had a goal and two assists for the Montreal Canadiens in a 4-1 win against the Calgary Flames at Bell Centre on Wednesday.

It was Texier’s first three-point game of his NHL career.

“Just for my confidence, if you play the right way, if you work hard and you’re positive no matter what, you’re going to have some results,” Texier said. “So I’m pretty happy, especially here in Montreal, to get the win tonight.”

Cole Caufield had a goal and an assist, and Lane Hutson also scored for the Canadiens (24-13-6), who have won 5 of 7 (5-1-1). Jacob Fowler made 28 saves.

Texier, who has been playing on Montreal’s top line with Caufield and Nick Suzuki, has 12 points in 22 games with the Canadiens. He signed as a free agent Nov. 23 after his contract was terminated by St. Louis after he had one assist in eight games.

“I think for (Texier) it’s a big confidence booster,” Caufield said. “I think he’s been playing well as of late. It obviously takes time to jell a little bit, but what he’s able to do with the puck, it’s pretty easy to make plays out there with him. It was a big night for him and well-deserved.”

Joel Farabee scored, and Dustin Wolf made 31 saves for the Flames (18-21-4), who lost their third straight following a three-game winning streak.

“I really don’t think we even played that bad,” Farabee said. “I think it was just 10 minutes of the game where we kind of lost it and their skill guys took over. They have a lot of skill and if you give them chances, they’re going to bury [them].”

Montreal opened the scoring with three consecutive goals in a span of 5:02 during the second period.

Texier gave the Canadiens a 1-0 lead at 3:10 of the second. He took a pass to the right of the net from Alexandre Carrier before lifting a wrist shot that went into the top right corner off Wolf’s left arm for his 100th NHL point.

Hutson made it 2-0 at 7:05 when he one-timed a slap shot from the slot on Phillip Danault’s pass from the left corner.

Oliver Kapanen scored 1:07 later to push it to 3-0 at 8:12. He pounced on a rebound of Juraj Slafkovsky’s shot in front of the net and moved to his right to put a wrist shot under Wolf’s outstretched left arm.

“It’s similar to what I felt like we were like at the beginning of the year,” Calgary coach Ryan Huska said. “There are stretches in there that I think we hurt ourselves with individual play or a mistake at an inopportune time, which I thought cost us. And then I thought we didn’t dig in hard enough in some of the battle areas on the puck is what I would say for tonight’s game.”

Farabee cut it to 3-1 at 17:39 when he drove the left side and used two Canadiens as a screen to beat Fowler with a wrist shot over the left shoulder from the top of the left face-off circle.

Caufield made it 4-1 at 3:56 of the third period after he knocked down Texier’s cross-ice pass as he drove the right side before scoring on a wrist shot over Wolf’s left arm.

“I don’t think that was the best pass ever but good players can catch it,” Texier said. “It was a crazy shot when I looked at it after.”

Nazem Kadri appeared to score for Calgary at 15:28 of the third period, but the play was overturned when Montreal successfully challenged that Kadri was offside.

“Any time you score late in a period I think it gives you some good momentum,” Farabee said. “And I thought we came out in the third with good energy and had a couple of chances, and then they just score another one and it kind of just kills us. It’s hard in this league to chase games, especially with how high-end their skill is, it’s tough to come back.”

NOTES: Texier, a Saint-Martin-d’Heres, France native who will represent France at the Winter Olympic Games Milano Cortina 2026, became the fourth player from France to record a three-point game in the NHL, joining Antoine Roussel (four), Philippe Bozon (two) and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare (one). Texier (102 career points) also became the third player born in France to reach NHL 100 points. Roussel leads all players from France with 197 points, and Bellemare is second with 138. … Flames forward William Stromgren had 8:04 of ice time and was minus-1 in his NHL debut.