Johansson, Avalanche bounce back against Canadiens

MONTREAL --Jonas Johansson and the Colorado Avalanche rebounded from a lopsided loss one night earlier with a 4-1 win against the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Thursday.

Johansson made 19 saves after allowing eight goals on 41 shots in an 8-3 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
"It feels really good," Johansson said. "I mean, last night was last night. I don't think anyone was happy with that game, including me. And so, really nice to come back and get the two points tonight."
Johansson has started the past two games in place of Darcy Kuemper, who sustained an upper-body injury at Wednesday's morning skate.
"I was really proud of him," Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. "He looked square to the shooters all night, he didn't give up a lot of rebounds."
Valeri Nichushkin had a goal and an assist for Colorado (12-7-1), which has won eight of its past 10 games.

Ben Chiarot scored, and Jake Allen made 30 saves for Montreal (6-17-2), which has lost two straight since firing general manager Marc Bergevin on Sunday.
"I thought we had some good O-zone time," Canadiens coach Dominique Ducharme said. "Obviously, we wanted to get more pucks [to the net], but … I thought they were pretty composed on the other side defensively, hard battles down low. Five-on-five it was a pretty tight game."
Jeff Gorton, who was hired by the Canadiens as executive vice president of hockey operations Sunday, was on hand for the game.
"I met him a couple of days ago for the first time and he seems like a great person," Montreal center Nick Suzuki said. "He's done a lot of good things with other teams."
Nichushkin gave the Avalanche a 1-0 lead with a shorthanded goal at 3:11 of the second period. Logan O'Connor forced a turnover by Canadiens defenseman Chris Wideman and passed to Nichushkin, who came off the bench and scored with a one-timer that trickled through Allen.
"[O'Connor is] such a puck hound on the forecheck and tracking to turn pucks over and get us back to playing in the other end of the rink," Bednar said. "He's such a strong skater. The penalty kill he's all over the puck and creating turnovers tonight like he did on 'Val's' goal, so he's been invaluable for us."
Chiarot tied it 1-1 with a power-play goal at 6:51.

Makar scored on a wrist shot from the right point at 15:49 to put Colorado ahead 2-1. He leads NHL defensemen with 10 goals this season.
"Obviously, we wanted to focus on a better start, and I think we did that tonight," Makar said.
Andre Burakovsky pushed the lead to 3-1 at 2:31 of the third when he knocked in a loose puck under a sprawling Allen, and Gabriel Landeskog shot into an empty net with 2:49 remaining for the 4-1 final.
During the third period, a Montreal jersey and hat were thrown onto the ice from the crowd.
"It's tough to get booed, but the fans want to see wins and they're used to productive teams, and we're not doing that right now," Suzuki said.
NOTES: Canadiens forward Josh Anderson left in the second period with an upper-body injury. Ducharme said he is expected to be out 2-4 weeks. Montreal recalled forward Laurent Dauphin from Laval of the American Hockey League after the game. … Avalanche defenseman Bowen Byram did not play because of an upper-body injury. … Colorado defenseman Erik Johnson played his 800th NHL game. He has scored 311 points (82 goals, 229 assists) with the St. Louis Blues and Avalanche. … Canadiens defenseman Alexander Romanov broke his nose when he collided with teammate Ryan Poehling while trying to check Makar in the first. He returned for the second period and played the rest of the game with a cage on his helmet. ... Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher and defenseman Sami Niku will each be out 10 days after testing positive for COVID-19.