MONTREAL — Tomas Fleischmann scored twice and added an assist to lead the Montreal Canadiens to a 5-1 win over the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday night at the Bell Centre.
Paul Byron, David Desharnais and Lars Eller also scored for the Canadiens (11-2-0), who remain unbeaten on home ice this season.
Chris Thorburn scored for Winnipeg (7-4-1).
Mike Condon, making his first home start of the season, made 18 saves for Montreal en route to his fourth win in as many starts.
Michael Hutchison stopped 5-of-9 shots before being replaced by Ondrej Pavelec. Pavelec made 16 saves in relief.
Byron’s second short-handed goal in as many games got the offence going for Montreal.
Jeff Petry squashed a Winnipeg entry into the Canadiens end, allowing Torrey Mitchell to get the puck up the ice. The speedy Byron beat out Andrew Ladd at the Jets blue line and skated in alone before deking Hutchison and beating him glove side at 6:34 of the first period.
Fleischmann put the Canadiens ahead 2-0 at 16:26. Desharnais carried the puck into the Jets zone along the right side and held off a defender as he cut in front. Hutchison made the save on Desharnais but Fleischmann picked up the rebound and tucked it past the goalie’s left side.
The ice was still wet when Fleischmann scored his second of the night just 35 seconds into the second period. Quick puck movement got the puck out of the Canadiens’ end and up to the winger, whose snapshot from the right circle beat Hutchison.
Desharnais extended Montreal’s lead two and a half minutes later when a clearing attempt by Tyler Myers developed into a turnover in the Canadiens’ favour. Desharnais’ shot from just outside the circle was stopped by Hutchison but the diminutive centre picked up the loose puck and roofed it just under the crossbar.
That chased Hutchison from the net.
The Jets had some of their best chances late in the second but couldn’t connect. First, a shot hit the post and bounced out, followed by a Condon save on rookie Nikolaj Ehlers. And after Pavelec denied Mitchell with a big save, Condon flashed the leather on Blake Wheeler.
Eller scored his first goal in four games on the power play at 17:51 when he redirected Andrei Markov’s shot with his skate.
Thorburn broke Condon’s shutout bid at 13:57 of the third period.
NOTES: The Canadiens scratched right winger Alexander Semin and defencemen Jarred Tinordi and Greg Pateryn. … Goaltender Carey Price missed his first game after being placed on injured reserved retroactive to Thursday, following an injury sustained against the Oilers in Edmonton. … The Jets scratched centre Andrew Copp and defencemen Paul Postma and Adam Pardy. … Montreal defenceman Nathan Beaulieu played in his 100th NHL game.
