Suzuki has goal, two assists for Canadiens in win against Oilers

EDMONTON -- Nick Suzuki had a goal and two assists for the Montreal Canadiens in a 5-2 win against the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place on Saturday.

Brendan Gallagher and Cole Caufield each had a goal and an assist, and Sam Montembeault made 28 saves for the Canadiens (15-34-7), who have won seven of eight.
"I loved our focus tonight, I felt like we played a really strong game tonight with all the emotion, the ups and downs, and we stayed the course," Montreal coach Martin St. Louis said. "I got to experience my first coach's challenge, I guess. It didn't go my way. It was weird how many calls could have affected the game on the offsides; the two goals. It was a weird game, but we stayed the course."
Evander Kane and Ryan McLeod scored, and Mike Smith made 24 saves for the Oilers (30-22-4).
"We just weren't good enough," Edmonton captain Connor McDavid said. "They are a team that has obviously been playing well since their coaching change. They were better than us tonight. There was maybe a little fatigue, I guess, but that is no excuse. We have to be better out of the gate. Their power play was good and ours wasn't. That was kind of the difference, for sure."

Caufield gave the Canadiens a 1-0 lead at 10:58 of the first period. He intercepted a clearing attempt inside the blue line and scored from the right face-off circle.
Kane tied it 1-1 22 seconds later on a shot from the slot.
Gallagher gave the Canadiens a 2-1 lead on the power play at 19:21, scoring off a rebound in front. It was his first goal since Nov. 20 (19 games).
"We feel pretty confident the way we're playing. We're just having fun, we're playing a certain style that we all enjoy," Gallagher said. "[St. Louis] seems to be bringing the best out of a lot of us and we're just having fun playing the game right now. It's good to see in our group."
McLeod tied it 2-2 at 5:37 of the second period, scoring on a rebound in front after Zach Hyman drove to the net for his first goal since Jan. 25 (18 games). The Canadiens challenged for goaltender interference, but the goal was confirmed after video review.
Suzuki appeared to give the Canadiens the lead on the power play at 10:12 on a shot from the right face-off circle. The Oilers challenged, and on review it was determined Suzuki was offside. The clock was reset to 9:45.
"This team, from the start of the season, we've been through pretty much everything we can go through, it's tough to rattle us now," Gallagher said. "We were still in a pretty good situation, we just had to keep doing what we were doing and find a way to win a hockey game."

Suzuki did give the Canadiens a 3-2 lead on the power play at 10:17, scoring from the same face-off circle.
Laurent Dauphin appeared to give Montreal a two-goal lead at 7:03, but the Oilers again challenged successfully for offside when it was determined the puck left the zone before it was played back to Dauphin in the zone.
"We lost the special-teams battle, our penalty kill was not good enough (2-for-4) and our power play, although it had a few chances, didn't generate the way we wanted it to (0-for-4)," Edmonton coach Jay Woodcroft said. "In the end, we gave up two goals on the penalty kill. One was a 6-on-5, one kind of on a 4-on-4, just at the end of it. They are all things we'd certainly like to have back, but we can't. We're going to digest it and work on it as we move forward here."
Artturi Lehkonen made it 4-2 with a shorthanded goal at 10:15 of the third period. He took a pass out front from Brett Kulak circling the net.
"I was thinking shoot first, but the [defenseman] did a good job of getting over and getting his stick in the lane and I think he would have broken up the shot," Kulak said. "I just waited it out and the goalie was playing it pretty aggressive. He was giving me plenty of space to come to the short side of the net and get the puck out to the middle. That's the option I went with, and it seemed like I kind of caught him off guard, and 'Lehke' was in the right place at the right time and it worked out well."
Mike Hoffman scored into an empty net at 16:11 for the 5-2 final.
NOTES: Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl had an assist to tie McDavid for the NHL lead with 79 points. … Edmonton forward Kyle Turris played six shifts and had 4:41 of ice time in his first game since Jan. 22. … Oilers defenseman Philip Broberg had four shots in 14:23 after being recalled from Bakersfield of the American Hockey League on Friday. … Caufield has scored 14 points (seven goals, seven assists) in the 11 games since St. Louis replaced Dominique Ducharme.