Montembeault makes 36 saves, Canadiens hand Coyotes 13th straight loss

MONTREAL -- Sam Montembeault made 36 saves, and the Montreal Canadiens held on to hand the Arizona Coyotes their 13th straight loss with a 4-2 win at Bell Centre on Tuesday.

Joel Armia and Jordan Harris each had a goal and an assist for Montreal (23-28-8), which ended a five-game losing streak (0-5-0).

“We got outshot pretty good tonight, so it was a fantastic game by [Montembeault], and I can’t speak enough of how he’s been all year,” Harris said.

Alex Kerfoot scored in his 500th NHL game, and Connor Ingram made 17 saves for Arizona (23-30-5), which is 0-11-2 during the losing streak.

“We’re in that kind of stretch,” Coyotes coach Andre Tourigny said. “You watched the game. We had 77 percent of the scoring chances tonight. We had a lot of possession in their zone, quality shots. Their goalie stood tall. There’s always nitpicking, we always can find a few things. We could have a little bit more traffic in front of him. We did not reload properly on two of their goals.

“There’s never a perfect game, but if you look all in all, I don’t want to find excuses or I don’t want to blame the players for an effort like tonight, that’s for sure.”

Armia put Montreal ahead 1-0 at 7:52 of the first period with a low wrist shot past Ingram’s glove off a pass from Alex Newhook on a 2-on-1.

Harris made it 2-0 at 4:52 of the second, electing to shoot on another 2-on-1 with Josh Anderson and beating Ingram blocker side from the right circle. 

“It was a big goal for us there in the second period,” Montembeault said. “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.”

Kerfoot got Arizona to within 2-1 at 7:42. He skated out front and put the puck inside the right post after J.J. Moser freed it up in a battle behind the net.

Tanner Pearson pushed it to 3-1 at 5:14 of the third period. He skated past Liam O’Brien at the blue line while taking a pass from Harris and beat Ingram blocker side on a breakaway.

“He made a great play, kind of turned on the jets there going around him,” Harris said.

Pearson, who missed 19 games with an upper-body injury from Dec. 9-Jan. 23, scored his first goal in 15 games.

“I didn’t know if there was going to be a ‘D’ after I turned there, and kind of had him on my back shoulder and realized there was no one between me and the net, and took off,” Pearson said.

Nick Bjugstad cut it to 3-2 at 14:23 with a backhand from the slot that slid inside the right post.

Nick Suzuki scored into an empty net with five seconds left for the 4-2 final.

NOTES: Harris’ goal was the 39th scored by a Montreal defenseman this season, tying the Calgary Flames for the second-most in the NHL behind the Colorado Avalanche (48). … Coyotes forward Clayton Keller did not play because of an upper-body injury he sustained in a 4-3 overtime loss at the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday.