Stars strike quickly to defeat Canadiens

DALLAS-- Devin Shore had a goal and an assist, Ben Bishop made 29 saves, and the Dallas Stars defeated the Montreal Canadiens 3-1 at American Airlines Center on Tuesday.

Dallas (11-9-1) scored twice in 59 seconds late in the second period.
"I thought the game was great," Stars coach Ken Hitchcock said. "It was a playoff game, and two desperate teams. They had a little momentum at the start. They had us checking them, and we took over for a lot of the second and then they pushed hard in the third. That's playoff hockey."
WATCH: [All Canadiens vs. Stars highlights]
Charlie Lindgren made 26 saves for Montreal (8-12-2), which lost its fourth straight game.
"I thought tonight [I] played well," Lindgren said. "I gave the team a chance to win, but at the end of the day, it's a loss, and now it's [four] in a row or whatever it is. We [have] to turn that around."
Brendan Gallagher gave Montreal a 1-0 lead at 12:04 of the second period on the power play. Charles Hudon shot from the slot before Gallagher scored his ninth goal of the season on a rebound.
Shore tied it 1-1 at 18:22 when he scored his second goal of the season after a pass from John Klingberg. Shore has a goal in back-to-back games after going 19 games without scoring to start the season.
Spezza gave Dallas a 2-1 lead at 19:21 when he scored on a rebound after a wrist shot by Tyler Seguin.

"Sometimes the game kinds of goes in waves like that," Spezza said. "We've seen it against us; when you're offensive players you get a few shifts in a row and you kind of get rolling a bit."
It was the ninth time this season the Canadiens gave up two goals in less than a minute.
"I don't know if I'm going to have to call a timeout after we get scored on," Montreal coach Claude Julien said. "It's just something that has got to get better. We need to be strong, and when you get scored on, the biggest thing you [have] to do is push back, and right now that's not happening."
Seguin scored into an empty net with 27 seconds remaining.
In the second period, Stars forward Gemel Smith cleared a loose puck out of the crease after a deflection by Andrew Shaw. In the third period, Montreal nearly tied the game, but defenseman Stephen Johns swept the puck off the goal line.
"Those guys do a good job of helping me out when I need it," Bishop said.

Goal of the game

Spezza's goal at 19:21 of the second period.

Save of the game

Johns' goal-line save at 14:00 of the third period.

Highlight of the game

Shore's goal at 18:22 of the second period.

They said it

"It was really hard to find a rhythm tonight. We were trying to match pretty heavily and our lines just couldn't get that tempo and you saw a lot of different combinations. Sometimes that sparks stuff, but when we got out together, we felt like we were chasing the puck all night and weren't able to create anything." -- Canadiens forward Max Pacioretty
"It felt good, created some chances and could have had a little more, but that's kind of sticking to it. When you've been around long enough, you know when you're in a drought you have to work your way out of it." -- Stars forward Jason Spezza on scoring in back-to-back games

Need to know

Canadiens defenseman Shea Weber (lower body) was scratched. Julien didn't provide an update after the game. Brandon Davidson played 13:19 taking Weber's place. … Stars forward Alexander Radulov had an assist on Seguin's goal in his first game against the Canadiens after playing for them last season.

What's next

Canadiens: At the Nashville Predators on Wednesday (8 p.m. ET; SN1, FS-TN, RDS, NHL.TV)
Stars: At the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday (9 p.m. ET; ALT, FS-SW+, NHL.TV)