MONTREAL – SPORTS – The Montreal Canadiens played a solid game. Brendan Gallagher had two goals and an assist for the Montreal Canadiens in a 7-1 win against the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday.
Tyler Toffoli had a goal and an assist, and Tomas Tatar had three assists for Montreal (11-6-6), which split the two-game set and was 2-0-1 on its first homestand under coach Dominique Ducharme. Carey Price made 28 saves.
The Canadiens are 2-1-2 since coach Claude Julien was fired Feb. 24 and replaced by Ducharme, who said he was confident players were buying into his methods.
“I had no doubt about that,” Ducharme said. “Every day they show up, they’re engaged. I was really happy for them. They’ve put in so much, those guys care a lot. And to see them getting rewarded with a lot of success tonight. It won’t be like that every night, but our players got rewarded tonight. I think it’s good for them because they put in the work.”
Canucks Sweep Leafs
VANCOUVER – Sports – Brock Boeser and J.T. Miller each had a goal and two assists, and the Vancouver Canucks defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 on Saturday to sweep a two-game set at Rogers Arena.
Thatcher Demko made 37 saves for the Canucks (11-15-2), who won consecutive games for the first time since winning four straight from Jan. 25-30. They did it despite playing each game without center Elias Pettersson, who is day to day with an upper-body injury.
“It’s just kind of the next-man-up mentality,” Boeser said. “‘Petey’ is such a big part of our team, but we know we need to find ways to create offense and be difference makers, and I think we did a good job of that.”
Battle of Alberta
EDMONTON – SPORTS – Connor McDavid scored the go-ahead goal with 3:45 remaining, and the Edmonton Oilers defeated the Calgary Flames 3-2 at Rogers Place on Saturday in Calgary’s first game since firing its coach.
McDavid gave the Oilers a 3-2 lead with a shot from the left face-off dot on the rush that bounced in off the far post.
McDavid had two assists, Kailer Yamamoto had a goal and an assist, and Mike Smith made 34 saves for Edmonton (15-11-0), which scored one goal when it lost three straight to the Toronto Maple Leafs to begin its seven-game homestand.
“It’s a big win,” McDavid said. “When you’re sliding like we were, you have to find a way out of it, and I thought we did a great job as an entire group of just staying with it, sticking with it, holding on to that game even though we probably didn’t get off to our best start.”
