Golden Knights ride five-goal period to 6-2 win over Montreal Canadiens

MONTREAL — A disastrous second period sunk the Montreal Canadiens, who fell 6-2 to the Las Vegas Golden Knights at the Centre Bell on Saturday night.

The Golden Knights exploded for five unanswered goals in the second period from Tomas Hertl, Callahan Burke with his first career NHL goal, Ivan Barbashev, Tanner Pearson, and Keegan Kolesar.

Montreal’s Emil Heineman and Jacob Struble scored in the third before Golden Knights’ Jack Eichel collected his seventh of the season.

Golden Knights goalie Adin Hill stopped 15 of 17 shots. Montreal’s Sam Montembeault gave up five goals on 25 shots before he was replaced in the third period by Cayden Primeau, who turned away two of three shots.

Takeaways

Canadiens: The even-strength play that helped Montreal win four of five games vanished as the Canadiens regressed to its early-season disarray at both ends of the ice.

Golden Knights: Recovered from losing back-to-back games earlier in the week with a second straight road win. Eleven different players registered at least a point in Monyreal.

Key moment

Less than a minute after falling behind 2-0, Montreal turned the puck over at the offensive blue line for Vegas to score on a two-on-one rush.

Key stat

Montreal allowed five or more even-strength goals for the sixth time this season.

Up next

The Golden Knights continue their road trip Monday in Philadelphia. Montreal hosts the expansion Utah Hockey Club on Tuesday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 23, 2024.