Rielly sparks Maple Leafs past Canadiens in season opener

TORONTO -- Morgan Rielly broke a tie at 9:02 of the third period, and the Toronto Maple Leafs opened their regular season with a 5-2 win against the Montreal Canadiens at Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday.

After Maple Leafs forward Matthew Knies was stopped by Sam Montembeault on a breakaway, he got to his own rebound near the left post and maneuvered around Canadiens defenseman Lane Hutson, who had lost his stick, before finding Rielly in the slot. The defenseman shot high glove to put Toronto up 3-2.

“It was a great play,” Rielly said.

“[Our game] looked like our first game. There was some good, some not so good, but I think it’s good just the way we stuck together and pulled it out. I thought we played well in the third and that’s important.”

William Nylander had a goal and two assists, Rielly added an assist, and John Tavares and Steven Lorentz each had two assists for the Maple Leafs. Anthony Stolarz made 29 saves.

“A lot of good and there’s stuff we have to work on obviously, but we did a good enough job to win the game,” Toronto coach Craig Berube said. “I thought our third period was our best period. Good job protecting the lead and closing it out. Our goalie was good and we had some players who were really good tonight, but overall our puck play wasn’t great and that was the root of our problems in general.”

Oliver Kapanen and Zack Bolduc scored, and Montembeault made 22 saves for the Canadiens, who were also playing their first game of the season.

“I felt we spent a lot of time in the offensive zone tonight,” Montreal coach Martin St. Louis said. “I think we could have had more of a shooting mentality a little more, but we have been so focused on the defensive side of things throughout camp.

“We have started diving in on the offensive side of things, but I think we have to have more of a shooting mentality. But overall I liked what I saw. We had good intentions.”

Auston Matthews scored into an empty net at 18:28 to make it 4-2, and Nylander added another empty-net goal at 19:45 for the 5-2 final.

“I just liked our third period,” Stolarz said. “I liked the way we kind of hemmed them in, waited them out and just waited for them to make a mistake or just get an unfortunate bounce. 6-on-5 we shut them down and scored two goals there, so kudos to the guys that were on the ice.”

Bolduc put Montreal up 2-1 at 1:30 of the second period when he backhanded the rebound of Brendan Gallagher’s shot past Stolarz’s outstretched left pad. Bolduc was making his Canadiens debut after being traded from the St. Louis Blues on July 1.

Calle Jarnkrok tied it 2-2 at 5:40 when he scored through the five-hole from just below the left hash marks after Arber Xhekaj blocked Rielly’s point shot.

The Maple Leafs went up 1-0 at 1:00 of the first period when Bobby McMann deflected a shot from Nylander in the low slot. McMann had a career-high 20 goals last season but did not score in the final 11 regular-season games or Toronto’s 13 Stanley Cup Playoff games.

“That was cool (getting the season-opening goal),” McMann said. “All summer you try and work on your game, do what you can to score more maybe, and it’s nice to get the first one.

“If you put yourself in those areas, whether it goes off your stick or whatever part of your body, sometimes when you’re there it ends up going in and you find those pucks around there. You look at the goal charts around the League each year, there’s just a ton of dots right at the top of the crease.”

Kapanen tied it 1-1 at 5:39 with a short-handed goal. After Matthews mishandled a pass from Nylander in the neutral zone, Kapanen collected the puck at the red line and shot past Stolarz’s blocker from the top of the right face-off circle for his first NHL goal in his 19th game.

“We had enough chances,” Hutson said. “Would have been nice to execute on a couple chances and maybe get some more shots down. I think the guys played good and I definitely need to be better.”

NOTES: Canadiens defenseman Noah Dobson, who was acquired in a trade with the New York Islanders on June 27 and signed an eight-year, $76 million contract ($9.5 million average annual value), was minus-1 in 22:56 of ice time in his Montreal debut. … Maple Leafs forward Matias Maccelli, who was acquired in a trade with the Utah Mammoth on June 30, had an assist, was plus-1 and played 14:37 in his first game with Toronto. … Maple Leafs forward Nicolas Roy, who was acquired from the Vegas Golden Knights on July 1 as part of the sign-and-trade that sent forward Mitch Marner to Vegas, was plus-1 and played 13:43 in his debut with the team. … Matthews scored his 13th goal in a season-opening game to tie Alex Ovechkin for the most among active players. Michel Goulet and Dino Ciccarelli each had 14. … The Maple Leafs won their 10th straight home opener dating to 2016-17. Only two teams in NHL history have posted a run of that length (Canadiens, 11 from 1953-54 to 1963-64; Washington Capitals, 10 from 2001-02 to 2011-12).