Caufield, Newhook each scores twice, Canadiens top Stars

DALLAS -- Cole Caufield and Alex Newhook each scored twice, and the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Dallas Stars 5-2 at American Airlines Center on Thursday.

Phillip Danault had a goal and an assist, and Noah Dobson had two assists for Montreal (8-3-2), which won its fourth straight game, all of which have been on the road. Jakub Dobes made 17 saves.

“Our way to handle these third periods, up a goal or two goals,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. “We’ve been up two in all the third periods that we’ve played (on this road trip). ... We were able to show some maturity on this trip. That’s really the foundation of our closing out games and success.”

Wyatt Johnston had a goal and an assist, Jamie Benn scored, and Mikko Rantanen had two assists for Dallas (7-5-1), which has lost two in a row. Jake Oettinger made 16 saves.

“When you win the specialty teams game, which we ended up doing, but you give up four 5-on-5 goals, it’s not good enough,” Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said. “You can’t win in the League like that.”

Caufield made it 1-0 for Montreal at 7:24 of the first period. He got the rebound of Danault's shot in front that deflected off of Stars defenseman Nils Lundkvist and snapped it under the right pad of a sliding Oettinger.

“It was a mature win,” Caufield said. “Everybody was going, everybody knew they had a job to do tonight. It’s a good team over there. I feel like we didn’t give them much.”

Johnston scored a power-play goal at 12:53 to tie it 1-1, snapping the puck low into the far side of the net after a pass from Rantanen at the bottom of the right circle.

Newhook put Montreal back up 2-1 at 16:05 with his first of the game. Dobson found Newhook with a stretch pass, and he rushed into the zone and got past Stars defenseman Thomas Harley before putting a backhand around Oettinger.

“We got a couple bounces,” St. Louis said, “but you look at (Newhook’s) goal, and that’s an extraordinary thing. But we didn’t look for that. We played the game in front of us. We understand how they want to set against us and control the situation. We try to attack the holes that we know are gonna be there, don’t try to force things. Every now and then, extraordinary things pop out.”  

Just 27 seconds later, Caufield scored his second of the game to push it to 3-1. Juraj Slafkovsky skated behind the net and fed Adam Engstrom for a one-timer from the right dot. The puck went off the left post to Caufield, where he snapped it in.

“We are a really good team,” Dobes said. “We know we can score goals. If we take care of the game and our team, I feel like we’ll be really successful closing out the games and grabbing points.”

Newhook’s second goal came just after a Montreal power play had expired at 6:11 of the second period. Dobson’s point shot went off Chris Kreider and Oettinger before bouncing off the glass and landing at the side of the net, where Newhook backhanded it underneath the goalie to make it 4-1.

“At home, we were playing good hockey, but weren’t getting the results we wanted,” Newhook said. “It was kind of nice for us to get on the road together and just be together as a group. We came together a lot during this road trip to find results, protect wins and find ways to win. Shows maturity from our group here. Got to keep it rolling.”

Benn got Dallas to within 4-2 at 8:52 with a wrist shot from the left circle off a Rantanen feed from below the goal line.

“He’s a very unique player,” Johnston said of Benn. “He can play with anyone. He can kind of do it all. … Obviously, a nice goal tonight.”

Danault scored his first goal of the season, putting the puck into an empty net at 19:12 of the third period for the 5-2 final.

NOTES: Montreal defenseman Mike Matheson was scratched before warm ups with a lower-body injury. He will be evaluated when the team returns to Montreal. Arber Xhekaj drew into the lineup in his place. … Dallas defenseman Trey Taylor played his first NHL game, recording one hit in 10:44 ice time.