MONTREAL (AP) — Sam Montembeault made 36 saves to help the Montreal Canadiens snap their five-game losing streak with a 4-2 victory over the Arizona Coyotes on Tuesday night.
“They had a lot of shots but even with that we’ve got some guys like (Mike) Matheson and (Johnathan) Kovacevic, they blocked a lot of shots, too,” said Montembeault.
“They’ve got a lot of small shifty players that can move the puck in the offensive zone and I’m happy that we contained them to just two goals and got the win,” he said.
Joel Armia, Jordan Harris, Tanner Pearson and Nick Suzuki, with an empty-net goal, scored for Montreal.
Harris put the Canadiens ahead 2-0 with his second of the season at 4:52 of the second period.
“It was a big goal for us there in the second period,” Montembeault said of Harris’s goal. “He doesn’t get too many chances to go on a 2-on-1 like this but he took his chance and it was a great shot.”
Harris later set up Pearson to give Montreal a 3-1 edge 5:14 into the third period.
“I forgot who was on the boards but they were kind of tied up and I saw Tanner cutting through the middle,” said Harris. “He made a great play, kind of turned on the jets there going around him and then I couldn’t really see great from the bench because I was changing there so I’d have to see the replay to see how it went in.”
Alex Kerfoot and Nick Bjugstad scored for Arizona, while Connor Ingram stopped 17 shots.
The Coyotes outshot the Canadiens 38-21.
“We had emotion, we had passion, there was a good feeling on the bench,” said coach André Tourigny. “We had 77% of the scoring chances, a lot of quality shots but their goaltender stand tall.
“We could have had a little more traffic in front of him and we didn’t reload properly on their goals. It wasn’t a perfect game but overall I don’t want to find excuses.”
Tourigny said his team played a disciplined game but credited Montembeault for shutting the door on all three of the Coyotes’ power plays.
“Our power play had some good looks,” said Tourigny. “(Nick Schmaltz) had some chances from the slot but I think the goalie made his biggest saves when we were on the power play.”
UP NEXT
Coyotes: Continue a five-game road trip at Toronto on Thursday.
Canadiens: Kick off a four-game road trip against the Panthers on Thursday.
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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
The Associated Press
