Alex Newhook scored two goals in the opening period as the Montreal Canadiens earned a 4-2 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday at Scotiabank Arena.
Newhook opened the scoring at 5:56 of the first period with an even-strength wrist shot, assisted by Oliver Kapanen. He extended Montreal's lead to 2-0 at 13:06 of the same frame by tipping in a shot with assists credited to Kaiden Guhle and Kirby Dach. In the second period, Chris Kreider scored an unassisted wrist goal at 12:57 to stretch the advantage to three.
Toronto attempted a third-period push with two quick tallies. William Nylander got the Maple Leafs on the board at 6:19 on a power-play slap shot set up by Darren Raddysh and Auston Matthews. Gavin McKenna followed 55 seconds later at 7:14, converting an even-strength wrist shot off passes from Dakota Joshua and Colton Sissons to make it 3-2. Montreal answered on the power play at 12:15 when Zachary Bolduc ripped a slap shot past the goaltender, assisted by Lane Hutson and Cole Caufield.
Jacob Fowler stopped 26 of 28 shots to earn the win for Montreal. At the other end, Sergei Bobrovsky turned aside 24 of 28 shots for Toronto. Montreal finished 1-for-2 on the power play, while Toronto converted 1 of 4 opportunities with the man advantage. The Canadiens also controlled the faceoff circle, winning 31 of 50 draws.
With the victory, the Canadiens improved their regular-season record to 11-3-3 and won their second straight game. The loss dropped the Maple Leafs to 8-8-2 and stretched their winless streak to two games. Montreal has won both regular-season meetings between the clubs this season.
The Maple Leafs return to action on Sunday, November 8, when they host the New Jersey Devils. The Canadiens next play on Tuesday, November 10, when they host the Minnesota Wild.
