The Canadiens came out of their power play slumber, but it wasn’t enough to win against a team with only one regulation-time win to its name this season.
John Klingberg broke the tie midway through the third period by scoring his second goal of the game and the Anaheim Ducks defeated the Montreal club 5-2 Thursday night at the Bell Centre.
The Ducks, who had been shut out in their last two outings, have doubled their number of regular wins in 2022-2023.
The Canadiens were 0-for-20 on the power play in their previous five games. He finally put an end to this drought in the third period, helping himself to overcome a two-goal deficit.
The Ducks, however, had the last laugh.
Cole Caufield scored both goals for the Canadian (14-14-2), who has only two wins in his last seven games (2-4-1). Jake Allen stopped 27 shots.
Troy Terry, as well as Adam Henrique and Frank Vatrano in an empty net, also scored for the Ducks (8-20-3). Trevor Zegras and Mason McTavish each had two assists, while Lukas Dostal made 23 saves.
Forward Rem Pitlick had been inserted into the Canadiens’ lineup, taking over from Michael Pezzetta.
The Canadiens will play one last home game in 2022 on Saturday, when they host the Tampa Bay Lightning at the Bell Center. He will play his next seven games abroad.
A lame duck
Dostal was the first to report after just over four minutes of play. He was alert when Kirby Dach tried to take advantage of a loose puck in the slot after being hit by a shot from teammate Chris Wideman.
Although stoppages were rare in the middle of the period, the chances of scoring were just as rare.
The Ducks finally opened the scoring on a power play, with 2:32 left in the first period. Terry deflected a perfect Zegras snap between Allen’s pads.
Klingberg came back 28 seconds later, also beating Allen between the pads, but from the slot.
The second half wasn’t particularly exciting either. Allen made the finest save of the engagement about eight minutes into the game, when he stretched the pad to frustrate Henrique after a turnover from Caufield behind the Habs net.
The first three power plays of the Canadian had not been successful until then, but it was with one more man that the Habs revived after 3:11 of play in the third period. Caufield completed a great game started by Nick Suzuki, Jonathan Drouin and Kirby Dach.
Caufield brought everyone back to square one by tying the game 2-2 at 6:37 of the third period. This time, he collected a loose puck behind the net after an off-target shot from Johnathan Kovacevic, then outspeeded Dostal.
Alternately, Jason Megna and Kevin Shattenkirk came within inches of restarting the Ducks, but their shot hit the post.
Instead, Klingberg put the Ducks back in front with 9:05 to go. His long shot deceived the vigilance of Allen, who was hampered in his work by contact with his defender Jordan Harris.
Henrique scored an insurance goal into an empty net with 1:28 left on the clock. Vatrano completed the scoring with 8.9 seconds to go.