Canadiens defeat Islanders for first win in nine games

MONTREAL --The Montreal Canadiens ended their longest drought without a win since 2002-03 with a 4-2 victory against the New York Islanders at Bell Centre on Tuesday.

Phillip Danault, Brendan Gallagher and Shea Weber each had a goal and an assist for Montreal (12-10-6), which was 0-5-3 in its previous eight games. Carey Price made 21 saves.
"There's no question that we've definitely progressed towards this evening, but it's nice to get rewarded for our efforts," Price said.
WATCH: [All Islanders vs. Canadiens highlights]
Thomas Greiss made 36 saves, and Scott Mayfield and Mathew Barzal scored in the third period for New York (18-6-2), which split back-to-back games after a 4-1 win at the Detroit Red Wings on Monday.
New York had won consecutive games but is 2-3-1 in its past six following a team-record 17-game point streak (15-0-2) from Oct. 12-Nov. 23.
"They played hard. I don't think we matched it," Barzal said. "It wasn't our best game. We weren't smooth on the transition and every time we turned it over, they just jammed it right back into our zone."
Danault gave the Canadiens a 1-0 lead with one second left in the first period.

"I think if they don't score there, maybe you sort of regroup and get a push on and maybe they get tightened up, but it didn't happen," Islanders coach Barry Trotz said. "Any time you give up a goal real late in the period, that obviously gives some momentum for one team, not the other. So that was unfortunate, but at the same time the first period I think just being 1-0 probably flattered us."
Gallagher made it 2-0 at 13:30 of the second when he redirected Weber's shot and scored his team-leading 11th goal on the rebound.
Jeff Petry extended Montreal's lead to 3-0 with a wrist shot from the point at 2:12 of the third.

Mayfield scored 41 seconds later with a shot inside the left post at 2:53 to make it 3-1.
Barzal made it 3-2 when he scored his 11th goal unassisted at 17:31, but Weber scored into an empty net with 27 seconds remaining for the 4-2 final.
"I think we can enjoy it for a little bit, you know, obviously remember this feeling a little while," Gallagher said. "But we know the situation we're in; we can't afford to relax now. The last few games we've really bought into the way that we have to play. It's taken a little bit longer than we would have hoped, but we got a result tonight and hopefully this can be a big thing for us going forward."

They said it

"We were down by two, so we kind of had to fight a bit. There were definitely some chances to be had out there, but at the end of the day it's a 60-minute game, and they dominated probably 50 minutes of it." -- Islanders defenseman Scott Mayfield
"We've got a pretty good challenge ahead of us again. These next four games are both back-to-back so we're not out of the woods yet, but I like the way we played. We've just got to stay the course right now and understand why we're winning, and we're playing much better on both ends of the ice." -- Canadiens coach Claude Julien

Need to know

Islanders forward Cal Clutterbuck was injured during his third shift at 7:00 of the first period. "He got cross-checked across the face, so we'll have a better update for you [Wednesday]," Trotz said. … New York goalie Semyon Varlamov entered the game for 39 seconds at 12:20 but did not face a shot on goal while Greiss had a skate blade replaced. … Weber had 29:49 of ice time and Ben Chiarot, his defense partner, played 30:47. … The Canadiens honored 11 of their former captains, including Yvan Cournoyer, Serge Savard and Bob Gainey, in a pregame ceremony one day before the 110th anniversary of their founding on Dec. 4, 1909. Price wore Jacques Plante's No. 1 jersey and Weber wore Larry Robinson's No. 19 as each Montreal player wore the jersey of a former Canadiens great during warmups. … The winless streak was Montreal's longest since a nine-game skid (0-6-2 with one tie) from Feb. 18-March 8, 2003.

What's next

Islanders: Host the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday (Nassau Coliseum, 7 p.m. ET; MSG+, ATTSN-RM, NHL.TV)
Canadiens: Host the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; TSN2, RDS, ALT, NHL.TV)