Montembeault makes 30 saves, Canadiens shut out Oilers

MONTREAL -- Sam Montembeault made 30 saves for his second shutout of the season, and the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Edmonton Oilers 3-0 at Bell Centre on Monday.

Jake Evans had a goal and an assist, and Brendan Gallagher and Kaiden Guhle also scored for Montreal (7-10-2), which has won three of its past four games.

“Going into the game you know these guys can make you pay if you make a little mistake,” Montembeault said. “I’m pretty proud of everybody’s job today. We blocked some shots, (David) Savard got a few big blocks in the third. Guhle, too, in the first, and then he came back and scored a big goal in the third.

“I’m just really proud of the way we played tonight. The last few games we took a really good step in the right direction defensively and now we’ve just got to be consistent with it.”

It was Montembeault’s third NHL shutout and first since he made 48 saves in a 1-0 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs in the Canadiens’ season opener on Oct. 9.

“He’s been a solid force all year,” Gallagher said. “When you need a timely save, he’s been there to give it to us. And then tonight was no different, a really strong effort.”

Calvin Pickard made 22 saves for Edmonton (9-8-2), which had a four-game point streak end (3-0-1).

“We’re obviously not scoring at the rate that we usually do now,” Oilers defenseman Mattias Ekholm said. “And when you don’t, and things aren’t going your way, that’s when you’ve got to go back to your fundamentals and just play it simple.”

Oilers center Connor McDavid, who was named the NHL First Star of the Week on Monday, had four-game goal and multipoint streaks end. McDavid had 11 points (four goals, seven assists) during his streaks, including his 1,000th NHL point Thursday in a 3-2 overtime win against the Nashville Predators.

Gallagher gave the Canadiens a 1-0 lead with 31 seconds remaining in the second period when he deflected Mike Matheson’s shot from the left side past Pickard’s glove.

Guhle made it 2-0 from the left face-off circle at 5:52 of the third period. He scored with a wrist shot to the stick side off a pass from Cole Caufield.

“I just honestly put it on net and it found its way in,” Guhle said.

The Montreal defenseman skated off the ice and went straight to the dressing room at 8:56 of the first after Oilers defenseman Evan Bouchard’s slap shot struck him on the right hand. He returned for the start of the second.

“It hurt,” Guhle said. “I got some scans on it and it was good, so taped it up, got a couple of meds, a little numbing cream, and good to go.”

Evans scored into an empty net with 3:08 remaining for the 3-0 final.

“I thought we played hard, I thought we controlled a lot of the puck,” Edmonton forward Derek Ryan said. “We had some time in the offensive zone but maybe a little bit too much perimeter. We’ve got to find some ways to get on the interior parts of the ice. Battles in front of the net, some second and thirds, that’s where you score goals when you’re struggling to score.”

Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse did not play. He is expected to be out for 5-10 days after being injured Saturday on an illegal check to the head by Maple Leafs forward Ryan Reaves, who was suspended for five games Sunday.

“He’s a leader on our team and he plays with an edge,” Ekholm said. “He’s a huge part of this team so obviously we’ll miss him and hopefully he’ll be back soon, but we’ve got guys that can step in and do a good job.”

NOTES: Edmonton forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins played his 900th NHL game, finishing minus-1 with five shots on goal in 21:08 of ice time. Only Kevin Lowe (1,037) and Ryan Smyth (971) have played more games for the Oilers. … Edmonton forward Leon Draisaitl had a four-game point streak end (four goals, four assists). … Joshua Brown had two hits and played 11:58 in his season debut and first game for the Oilers. The defenseman, who was recalled from Bakersfield of the American Hockey League on Sunday, signed a three-year, $3 million contract ($1 million average annual value) with Edmonton on July 1.