Canadiens defeat Flames, extend season-opening point streak to seven

MONTREAL -- Brendan Gallagher and Shea Weber each scored a power-play goal in the first period, and the Montreal Canadiens won their home opener 4-2 against the Calgary Flames at Bell Centre on Thursday.

Josh Anderson and Tyler Toffoli scored in the second for Montreal (5-0-2), which has a point in each of its first seven games and has won three straight. Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Jonathan Drouin each had two assists, and Nick Suzuki had an assist to extend his point streak to seven games (two goals, five assists).
"The guys are excited, guys are playing with passion right now," Weber said. "And it's different, obviously, with just all-Canadian (Scotia North) division. So we haven't had a chance to play a whole lot of teams. But at the same time, it's an opportunity for us to keep growing and getting better, and it's a short season so it's going to go fast, and we've just got to keep our foot down and keep going."

Carey Price made 23 saves. He lost his shutout when Milan Lucic scored with 1:23 remaining to make it 4-1. Video review determined Flames forward Derek Ryan was onside on the play.
"When we kept looking at it we couldn't really determine whether it was for sure, one way or another," Canadiens coach Claude Julien said. "So at 4-0 I said it was worth taking a chance to try and save his shutout."
Rasmus Andersson scored a power-play goal with 23 seconds remaining to get Calgary within 4-2.
David Rittich made 17 saves in his first start for the Flames (2-3-1), who lost their third straight in the first of a two-game set against the Canadiens.
"It was a quick pace to start the game and they got the power plays and just little things, little breakdowns cost us a couple goals there," Calgary captain Mark Giordano said. "Then I thought from there on we started taking way too many risks through the neutral zone, and against a good structure team they're going to make you pay."
The teams will play the second of nine games against each other this season here Saturday.
Corey Perry scored his 799th NHL point with a blind backhand pass from the left edge of the crease to set up Gallagher, who drove the net and scored to give Montreal a 1-0 lead at 10:07 of the first period.

Weber made it 2-0 at 15:39 when his one-timer from the left point deflected off the stick of Flames defenseman Juuso Valimaki. It was his 104th power-play goal, the most among active NHL defensemen.
"It's nice to grab momentum in a game where we didn't have that many chances in the first," Drouin said.
Anderson batted in a rebound of Kotkaniemi's shot on a 2-on-1 to put the Canadiens up 3-0 at 8:21 of the second period.
"There's little moments where you have to generate emotion as a team," Flames coach Geoff Ward said. "And after we got down 3-0 we were trying to find those moments, but we didn't find as many as we needed to to get the next one and keep us tighter in the hockey game."
Toffoli, who was named the NHL's First Star of the Week on Monday, made it 4-0 at 19:35 with Montreal's fifth shorthanded goal in the past six games.
His Montreal-leading sixth goal came on a breakaway when he settled the puck and jammed it between Rittich's pads after struggling to control Suzuki's lob pass up the middle.
NHL.com columnist Dave Stubbs contributed to this report