MONTREAL — In the battle of the NHL’s bottom-dwellers, the Arizona Coyotes continued on their fruitful Eastern Conference road trip with a 6-3 win over the Montreal Canadiens.
The Coyotes (20-36-4) ended their travels with four wins in five games.
Barrett Hayton, Anton Stralman, Nick Ritchie, Lawson Crouse, Clayton Keller and Nick Schmaltz scored for Arizona. Karel Vejmelka gave up three goals on 39 shots
Laurent Dauphin scored and Cole Caufield made things interesting with two goals in the span of eight seconds but Montreal couldn’t match Arizona’s tally.
The Canadiens (16-36-8) pulled their goalie for a league-leading 11th time this season after Samuel Montembeault allowed four goals on seven shots in the first period. Cayden Primeau gave up one goal from 12 shots in relief.
The Coyotes had no tired legs from their 5-3 win over the Ottawa Senators the night before, scoring four goals in the first period.
Hayton skated the length of the ice and beat Montembeault to break the ice. Stralman added a second from the crease, tapping in Reilly Nash’s pass from behind Montembeault’s net.
The Canadiens cut their deficit to one goal in awkward fashion at 13:38 of the first period. The puck bounced off of two Coyotes players and finally made its way into their own net.
Alex Galcheyuk passed to Ritchie in the crease who tapped in Arizona’s third goal of the night, and his seventh of the season. Finally, Crouse ended Arizona’s productive first period by scoring on a breakaway and sending Montembeault to the bench.
Keller added a power-play marker in the second to make it a 5-1 game but Montreal made things interesting with just over one minute left in the period. Caufield scored twice in the span of eight seconds to bring the score to 5-3 ahead of the second intermission.
Schmaltz added the empty-netter with 4:18 to go in the third period, his 17th point in seven games, sealing Arizona’s 6-3 win.
