Alexandre Carrier scored an unassisted third-period goal and added an assist to help the Montreal Canadiens open the regular season with a 3-2 victory against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena on Tuesday.
William Nylander gave Toronto an early 1-0 lead just 48 seconds into the first period with a wrist shot set up by Morgan Rielly and Kirill Marchenko. Montreal responded at 10:53 when Josh Anderson batted in his first goal of the season after passes from Carrier and Kirby Dach. Zachary Bolduc then pushed the Canadiens ahead 2-1 at 4:52 of the second period on a wrist shot assisted by Mike Matheson and Anderson.
Carrier extended Montreal's advantage to 3-1 at 13:12 of the third period on an unassisted wrist shot. Toronto answered quickly at 15:46 as Nylander scored his second wrist-shot goal of the contest off feeds from Easton Cowan and John Tavares, but the Maple Leafs could not find an equalizer.
Jakub Dobes secured the win for the Canadiens by stopping 26 of 28 shots, while Sergei Bobrovsky turned aside 21 of 24 shots in the loss for Toronto. Special teams stayed quiet on both sides, as Montreal finished 0-for-2 on the power play and Toronto went 0-for-3.
The victory put Montreal at 1-0-0 to start the 2026-2027 campaign, while Toronto dropped to 0-1-0. All five goals scored in the game were the first or second of the season for each scorer.
The Maple Leafs will host the San Jose Sharks on Monday, October 19. The Canadiens will also face the San Jose Sharks next, hosting them on Tuesday, October 20.
