Dadonov scores twice for Canadiens in win against Jets

MONTREAL -- Evgenii Dadonov had his first multigoal game with the Montreal Canadiens in a 4-1 win against the Winnipeg Jets at Bell Centre on Tuesday.

Kirby Dach, Justin Barron and Christian Dvorak each had two assists, and Sam Montembeault made 25 saves for Montreal (19-23-3), which won consecutive games for the first time since Nov. 23-25 and are 4-2-0 in its past six.
"I think today was a really big game for us, especially after back to back on the road," Dadonov said.
The Canadiens defeated the New York Rangers 2-1 on Sunday, following a 2-1 loss at the New York Islanders on Saturday.
"We just beat two of the best teams in the League," said Montembeault, who made his fifth straight start. "So it just shows that when we play for 60 minutes and we play our kind of hockey that we can compete with anybody."

Kyle Connor scored his 200th NHL goal, and Connor Hellebuyck made 24 saves for Winnipeg (29-15-1), which won its previous three games and eight of 10.
"We weren't skating," Jets coach Rick Bowness said. "Our legs weren't going, our compete wasn't good, our execution was way off. So there are very few games that we're going to walk out of a rink and say that we didn't deserve to win, but that's certainly one tonight.
"We didn't deserve to win that game. We were outplayed. We were behind them all night, made it very easy for them to play their game. So when the compete isn't there, and the legs aren't there and the execution isn't there, then you look bad. We looked bad."

Connor gave Winnipeg a 1-0 lead at 1:24 of the second period with a one-timer from the right face-off circle on a power play before Dadonov tied it 1-1 at 7:46, scoring on a one-timer after receiving a pass from Barron at the bottom of the right circle.
"We weren't able to connect on a lot of plays," Connor said. "We were kind of disjointed throughout the whole ice, all three zones, not one zone in particular. They were able to counter on us pretty good, catch us on some bad changes. We just weren't taking care of each other tonight."
Mike Hoffman made it 2-1 at 9:28 with a wrist shot from the right circle past the blocker of Hellebuyck, and Dadonov extended it to 3-1 at 13:31, scoring on a rebound.
Josh Anderson made it 4-1 at 4:19 of the third period, putting in the rebound after Dach tried to score on a wraparound.
"I think the biggest part was we didn't spend a lot of time in our zone," Montreal defenseman Mike Matheson said. "It didn't seem like there were any long shifts where they really sustained pressure against us and [were] generating a lot of chances. So that's a great way to play when you're kind of cutting those down and going on offense with energy and possession."

NOTES: Matheson had one assist, one shot on goal and four hits in 17:01 of ice time after missing 13 games and 17 of the past 18 with a lower-body injury. … Canadiens forward Jonathan Drouin did not play due to an undisclosed injury. Montreal dressed seven defensemen and 11 forwards. … Connor has 200 goals in 429 games, the second-fewest needed in Jets/Atlanta Thrashers history, behind Ilya Kovalchuk (385 games). He is the fifth player in franchise history to reach the mark, joining Kovalchuk (328 goals), Blake Wheeler (257), Mark Scheifele (256) and Bryan Little (217). … Winnipeg forward Nikolaj Ehlers had one assist to extend his point streak to six games (three goals, seven assists). … Canadiens forwards Juraj Slafkovsky (lower body), Joel Armia (upper-body injury) and Jake Evans (lower body) were placed on injured reserve earlier Tuesday.