Ducks extend point streak to 5 with win against Canadiens

ANAHEIM -- Mason McTavish and Jakob Silfverberg scored power-play goals in the third period for the Anaheim Ducks in a 3-2 win against the Montreal Canadiens at Honda Center on Friday.

Jayson Megna scored, and John Gibson made 26 saves for the Ducks (21-34-8), who matched their longest point streak of the season (4-0-1). Derek Grant had two assists.
"We try not to really think of the last couple games, even if we're doing good or bad, we just kind of take it game by game," McTavish said. "Take the approach that every day is a new day, an opportunity to get better."

Jonathan Drouin had a goal and an assist, and Sam Montembeault made 30 saves for the Canadiens (26-32-4), who have lost three of four.
"To me, it's finish the year, don't coast to the finish line," Montreal coach Martin St. Louis said. "We're not going to just count the days until the end of the season. We're going to go to work."
McTavish scored on a one-timer from the right face-off circle to give Anaheim a 2-1 lead at 11:01 of the third period.
Silfverberg then scored a rebound with the man-advantage to extend the lead to 3-1 at 15:00.

Nick Suzuki scored with 30 seconds left and Montembeault pulled for the extra skater to make it 3-2.
"The guys are engaged, the guys are proud," St. Louis said. "I'm expecting us to fight every game and keep working at what we're trying to do."
Drouin gave the Canadiens a 1-0 lead 1:16 into the first period. Josh Anderson brought the puck up the left wall in the Ducks zone and made a cross-ice pass to Mike Matheson, who carried the puck into the right face-off circle and took a wrist shot from the dot that squeezed between Gibson's pads and Drouin pushed it across the goal line.
It was his first goal since Jan. 1, 2022.
"We were all very excited and I think you can see the smile on his face too," Montreal defenseman Joel Edmundson said of Drouin's goal. "It's nice for him to get the first one."

The Ducks tied it 1-1 at 4:20 of the first period. Max Comtois brought the puck down the right side of the Montreal zone and made a backhand centering pass to Megna. The puck was slowed by Montreal defenseman Johnathan Kovacevic but stayed in the slot and Megna skated in and shot it into the net with a one-timer.
"We did put an emphasis, when the game started, as far as our game plan, to get bodies and pucks to the net," Megna said. "I thought we did a pretty good job of that."
It was Anaheim's only shot on goal through the first 8 1/2 minutes.
"They came out pretty hard, especially after a back to back," McTavish said of the Canadiens, who lost 3-2 to the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday. "Credit to them, that's not easy to do. I didn't think we had our best start, obviously. 'Megs' had a huge goal there, brought us back even and we just kind of built on that."
Montreal went on its third power play and Matheson hit both posts on the same shot at 5:41 of the third period, and Mike Hoffman then had an open net, but hit the post four seconds later.
"I thought tonight the effort was there, we just didn't get the result that we wanted," St. Louis said. "That's OK, we'll focus on (the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday) and we're going to keep trying to build our game up."
NOTES:The Ducks traded defensemen John Klingberg and Dmitry Kulikov on Friday. Klingberg
went to the Minnesota Wild
, and Kulikov
to the Pittsburgh Penguins
. ... Anaheim has points in six straight games against Montreal (5-0-1). ... Ducks forward Trevor Zegras assisted on McTavish's goal to give him five points (one goal, four assists) in his past four games. ... Gibson is 3-0-2 his past five starts with a .945 save percentage. ... The Ducks announced before the game that defenseman Urho Vaakanainen recently had surgery to repair a torn labrum in his hip and is expected to be out 5-6 months. Vaakanainen last played in a 2-1 overtime win against the Arizona Coyotes on Jan. 28. ... Anaheim general manager Pat Verbeek told reporters before the game that forward Adam Henrique has a sprained MCL and will miss another 5-6 weeks. Henrique was injured in a 6-1 loss at the Tampa Bay Lightning on Feb. 21.