Seguin's 2 goals lift Stars past Canadiens

MONTREAL -- Tyler Seguin scored twice for the Dallas Stars in a 3-2 win against the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Saturday.

Thomas Harley scored, Matt Duchene and Mason Marchment each had two assists and Jake Oettinger made 18 saves for Dallas (32-14-6), which is 10-3-1 in its past 14 games.

Oettinger extended his NHL career-long winning streak to five games, the longest by a Dallas goalie since Ben Bishop won six straight in 2018-19.

“Jake held us in early and then we kind of took over from there,” Duchene said. “We could have had a few more. Big win for us.”

Juraj Slafkovsky scored for a third straight game, Nick Suzuki had a goal and an assist and Sam Montembeault made 35 saves for Montreal (21-22-8), which has lost five of seven (2-4-1).

“We came out pretty good out of the gate,” Montembeault said. “The crowd was into it, too, in the first period. I think it was a really intense period on both sides and we went back after the first 0-0. Maybe they played better in the second, it’s a veteran team, they work hard and they play good.

“But I think we stayed focused and we came back in the third and played some good hockey. Even though we got that four-minute penalty (a double-minor for high-sticking called against Montreal's Jake Evans at 13:50 of the third period), I think the guys kept working and we got two or three scoring chances on that PK that could have went our way. But overall, I think I’m happy with the effort of the guys tonight.”

Suzuki’s goal 38 seconds into the second gave the Canadiens a 1-0 lead. He scored on a wrist shot past Oettinger's stick side from the right face-off circle after receiving Cole Caufield’s long bank pass off the boards from the defensive zone.

“I have no idea if Cole saw me or not,” Suzuki said.

Harley tied it 1-1 at 3:51 on a wrist shot over Montembeault’s glove from the top of the left circle.

Seguin gave Dallas a 2-1 lead 24 seconds later at 4:15, when he jammed Duchene’s centering pass from behind the net between Montembeault’s pads.

Seguin made it 3-1 with his second straight goal at 17:45 with a shot past Montembeault from the right side, finishing off Duchene’s pass from the left corner.

“He’s such a skilled offensive player,” Seguin said of Duchene. “And all the games we play together now, this year we kind of just learned from each other, you know, what soft areas to go to, and he put a couple of great ones on my tape tonight.”

Slafkovsky drew Montreal within 3-2 when he scored at 18:37 on a shot over Oettinger’s right shoulder from a tight angle after Suzuki fed him the puck from behind the net.

“They’re a good team, they know how to score goals,” Slafkovsky said. “We had plenty of chances to come back, but it just didn’t happen.”

Slafkovsky, the No. 1 pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, reached double digits in goals for the first time with his fourth goal in three games, including his first multigoal game Thursday.

“He’s getting better each game,” Suzuki said. “The experience that he gets night in and night out against the top lines and top pairs is something you can’t generate in practice. So, he’s progressed really well over the last couple of months and you just want to see that keep climbing.”

NOTES: The Stars are 16-6-4 on the road this season. ... Marchment had the secondary assist on each of Seguin’s goals; he has eight points (two goals, six assists) during a seven-game point streak. ... Canadiens forward Rafael Harvey-Pinard sustained a lower-body injury in a collision with linemate Joel Armia in front of the bench on the play that led to Seguin’s go-ahead goal. After lying face down on the ice, he managed to get up and onto the bench before being helped off to the dressing room. There was no update, and Montreal recalled forward Joshua Roy from Laval of the American Hockey League. … Caufield's assist extended his NHL career-high point streak to 11 games (14 points; six goals, eight assists), and he joined Max Domi (11 games in 2018-19) and Pierre Turgeon (13 games in 1994-95) as the only Canadiens players with a point streak of at least 11 games in the past 30 years. ... Montreal forward Alex Newhook played 18:52 and had three shots on goal in his return after missing 27 games with an ankle injury.