Adam Lowry scored twice, Nino Niederreiter had a goal and an assist, and Mason Appleton had two assists for the Jets (4-3-1), who had won three straight. Laurent Brossoit made 26 saves.
“Give their goaltender credit, he made some big stops for them,” Winnipeg associate coach Scott Arniel said. “We could have blown that out, maybe made it three, 4-0 there. They hung in there until the end of it and he gave them a chance, but all in all I was happy with how we played. We put a lot of pressure on them for most of that game.”
Lowry gave the Jets a 1-0 lead at 4:28 of the first period, scoring on a penalty shot after he was hooked from behind by Alex Newhook on a breakaway.
Barron tied it 1-1 at 5:05 with his third goal in the past four games. The Montreal defenseman drove to the net and shot between Brossoit’s pads after taking a centering pass from Rafael Harvey-Pinard inside the blue line.
Lowry gave Winnipeg a 2-1 lead with his second goal of the game 15 seconds into the second period. He tucked the puck inside the right post after taking Niederreiter’s reverse pass behind the net.
“If we put up 45 shots, most nights, and kind of limit the chances we give up, we feel like we’ll give ourselves a great chance to win every night,” Lowry said.
Niederreiter scored 18 seconds later to extend it to 3-1. He scored with a backhand under Allen’s left pad off a centering pass from Appleton after Canadiens forward Juraj Slafkovsky turned over the puck behind the net.
“We had more than enough chances to bury and get that fourth one,” Jets defenseman Brenden Dillon said. “We had the power play at the start of the third, too. You know it’s just something where we’re doing a lot of good things, I think the team as a whole is feeling good about our game and where it’s at right now. We found a way to get a point tonight, but it’s frustrating that we didn’t get two.”
Monahan cut it to 3-2 at 8:23 of the second period on a power play. He scored with a backhand over Brossoit’s left pad after Suzuki’s pass found him alone in the crease.
“That was a great play by ‘Suzi’ to find me there, I was kind of all alone,” Monahan said. “Special teams are huge. In a game like that, where we weren’t going great in the first or second, to get the power-play goal and get us some momentum was huge.”
