McElhinney, Maple Leafs shut out Canadiens

TORONTO -- Curtis McElhinney made 33 saves to help the Toronto Maple Leafs to a 4-0 win against the Montreal Canadiens at Air Canada Centre on Saturday.
Toronto (43-22-7), which has won four in a row, trails the Boston Bruins by five points for second place in the Atlantic Division; the Bruins hold two games in hand.
Andreas Johnsson scored his first NHL goal and William Nylander, Kasperi Kapanen and Nazem Kadri scored for the Maple Leafs, who extended their home winning streak to 12 games.

WATCH: [All Canadiens vs. Maple Leafs highlights]
"It was great. One of the scouting things prior to the game was that they go to the net and that they have a lot of traffic in front, so I thought we did a great job overall," said McElhinney, who got his third shutout of the season. "Outside of a few opportunities in the first period, I thought our guys were phenomenal in front of the net."

Charlie Lindgren made 45 saves for the Canadiens (26-34-12), who are 1-5-2 in their past eight games.
"I felt good tonight. Obviously, they were throwing a lot of pucks to the net," Lindgren said. "Especially in the second period, they came really hard and generated a lot of scoring chances. They had a really good effort tonight and unfortunately we came out on the wrong side."
Nylander ended his 13-game goal drought when he scored on the power play at 16:01 of the first period to give the Maple Leafs a 1-0 lead.
Kapanen made it 2-0 at 3:00 of the second period when he took a pass from Travis Dermott and beat Lindgren on a breakaway.
Kapanen thought he scored again at 15:06, but the Canadiens won a challenge for goaltender inference.
But the Maple Leafs made it 3-0 at 19:31 when Kadri deflected a pass from Mitchell Marner in the slot on a power play.
"The first wasn't terrible, but the second (period) we were on our heels, they controlled the play," Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher said. "The penalty kill gives up two goals and we just didn't do enough to play in the other end. It's a little bit disappointing. As of late we'd been doing the little things to win, and tonight we got away from that and got the result that we deserved."
Johnsson scored at 15:27 of the third period to make it 4-0 when he took a pass from Zach Hyman at the side of the net and put it over Lindgren's blocker.

"Pure happiness, such a rush. I didn't really expect that I'm going to score, but when it happens, it's a total rush," Johnsson said. "I don't know what I thought, but it was something like, 'Oh my god, it's in.' It was just pure happiness."

Goal of the game

Kapanen's goal at 3:00 of the second period.

Save of the game

Lindgren's save against Tyler Bozak at 15:40 of the first period.

Highlight of the game

Kadri's goal at 19:31 of the second period.

They said it

"We played a decent road first period, and then I don't know if we got lazy or what it was, but it was an unacceptable second period. We were slow to get to spots, slow to defend, bad gaps, the list goes on." -- Canadiens defenseman Jeff Petry
"Gosh, I think it's more the wins than anything. Sure, I'll take a shutout any day; it helps out the numbers, but I think it's more just being able to put together some wins than anything else." --Maple Leafs goalie Curtis McElhinney

Need to know

McElhinney had the secondary assist on the goal; it was his first point since Dec. 17, 2015, and fourth of his NHL career. … Maple Leafs forward Patrick Marleau played in his 1,565th NHL game, passing Nicklas Lidstrom for 11th on the all-time list. … Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock is hopeful forward Auston Matthews (shoulder) and goalie Frederik Andersen (upper body) will be able to play at the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday.

What's next

Canadiens: Host the Florida Panthers on Monday (7:30 p.m. ET; TSN2, RDS, FS-F, NHL.TV)
Maple Leafs: At the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday (7:30 p.m. ET; SUN, TSN4, NHL.TV)