Wild hold off Canadiens, extend point streak to three games

MONTREAL -- Joel Eriksson Ek scored twice for the Minnesota Wild in a 3-1 win against the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Tuesday.

Brandon Duhaime had a goal and an assist, and Marc-Andre Fleury made 26 saves for Minnesota (2-3-1), which extended its point streak to three games (2-0-1).
"We played good, they didn't get a ton of shots," Fleury said. "I think they had maybe some good chances when they had shots, but we had the puck a lot. We played well. We got some big goals, and we got some blocks on the [penalty kill] also, that helps a lot. The guys played well in front for sure."
Cole Caufield scored, and Jake Allen made 28 saves for Montreal (3-4-0), which has lost two in a row.
"I thought we played a pretty good game," Caufield said. "We stuck with them. Some tough calls that we had to go through, but that's hockey and we'll try to move on to the next game. But there were some good things we can take away from today."
Eriksson Ek gave the Wild a 1-0 lead at 5:52 of the first period, tapping in the puck short side.

Caufield tied it at 1-1 with his fifth goal of the season at 1:07 of the second period, scoring from the right face-off circle.
Duhaime put Minnesota up 2-1 at 12:48, driving past Canadiens forward Jake Evans into the slot and beating Allen past the blocker.
"We're just such a tight-knit group that when we get in games like that there's not really any pressure on us," Duhaime said. "We know that guys are going to block shots, guys are going to do the right things all around in three zones. So, we've just been snowballing on that."
Montreal forward Mike Hoffman had a chance to tie it at 5:50 of the third period when he was awarded a penalty shot after being hooked by Jon Merrill. Fleury made the pad save.
"Guys are so skilled, you never can anticipate too much," Fleury said. "I just tried to stay patient on my feet and trying to react the right way."

Eriksson Ek scored an empty-net goal with 31 seconds remaining for the 3-1 final.
"As a group, I think we've got to get to the net more, have bodies there," Canadiens forward Sean Monahan said. "It's not easy to score in this League, so we've got to create some traffic and find ways to score some ugly ones."
NOTES:Fleury played his 944th NHL game to move ahead of Curtis Joseph for sixth all-time among goalies in League history. He ranks second in career penalty shots faced (28) and saves made (22), trailing Roberto Luongo (33 penalty shots faced, 29 saves). … Canadiens forward Juraj Slafkovsky missed his second straight game with an upper-body injury. His condition will be updated Wednesday. … Injured defenseman
Joel Edmundson
(lower body) and forward Joel Armia (upper body) will be on Montreal's four-game road trip that begins at the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday. ... Canadiens defenseman Kaiden Guhle left late in the third period after taking a puck to the head at 15:44. There was no update from coach Martin St. Louis after the game.