Sissons scores twice to help Predators edge Canadiens

MONTREAL -- Colton Sissons scored twice, and the Nashville Predators held on for a 2-1 win against the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Sunday.

Juuse Saros made 36 saves, and Roman Josi had two assists for Nashville (15-13-0), which has won 10 of 13.

“Jusse was awesome,” Josi said. “They had a little push towards the end of the second, and especially in the third. It’s a big win for us.”

Jake Evans scored, and Jake Allen made 30 saves for Montreal (12-12-3), which is 1-6-1 in its past eight home games.

“I’ve said it a bunch, but it’s the best building to play in,” Evans said. “I don’t know if emotions get too high, energy gets too high and you lose a bit of focus. I’m not too sure. I didn’t even know that stat. I can tell you one thing, we all love playing here and we always get really excited to play here, so hopefully we can figure that out.”

Both teams were playing the second half of a back-to-back. Kevin Lankinen made 33 saves in Nashville’s 4-0 loss at the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday.

“We needed a good response, and I thought we had some juice with the drop of the puck tonight and played a much better game,” Sissons said.

The Canadiens are 0-5-0 in the second game of a back-to-back (5-0-0 in first game). Cayden Primeau made 46 saves in Montreal’s 3-2 shootout win at the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday.

“We didn’t give [Allen] any run support tonight, but I thought he played a strong game,” Montreal coach Martin St. Louis said.

Sissons put Nashville ahead 1-0 with a power-play goal at 11:41 of the first period. He slipped behind the Montreal defense and was left all alone to deflect Filip Forsberg’s shot from the point stick side on Allen.

Sissons scored again at 7:03 of the second period to make it 2-0. He was circling back to the net on the left side of the slot when he swatted in a big rebound produced by Dante Fabbro’s shot from the right side.

“’Fil’ made a really smart shot to me on the power play,” Sissons said. “I was open and he found a stick, put it in the perfect spot for me to tip. And the same goes for [Fabbro], he kind of passed one off the goalie’s pad and it just found me right on my tape and in a spot where I could put it away. So some fortunate bounces and it felt good.”

Evans cut the lead to 2-1 with 35 seconds remaining in the second period. He scored with a backhand 25 seconds after Montreal had a goal waved off because of goaltender interference.

“Our start was good,” St. Louis said. “There were about 15 minutes, late in the first and to start the second, that we had to defend a lot because we weren’t executing, or we were being stubborn. When we reset, we started our plays well and got deep, and we were executing well in the neutral zone when there was space.

“The game came back to us for I’d say the final 30 minutes, but we weren’t able to find that second goal.”

NOTES: Canadiens forward Tanner Pearson missed the game and will be out 4-6 weeks because of an upper-body injury he sustained Saturday. … Sissons scored his fourth game-opening goal of the season, which trails only Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins and JJ Peterka of the Buffalo Sabres (five each) for the most in the NHL.