Dobson, Anderson each scores twice for Montreal; Woll pulled for Toronto
TOR@MTL: Dobson scores his second goal of game
MONTREAL — Noah Dobson and Josh Anderson each scored twice, and the Montreal Canadiens ended a five-game skid with a 5-2 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Bell Centre on Saturday.
Lane Hutson scored, Ivan Demidov and Mike Matheson each had two assists, and Jakub Dobes made 23 saves for Montreal (11-7-3), which was 0-4-1 in its previous five, and had one win in its previous eight games (1-4-3).
Oliver Ekman-Larsson and William Nylander scored for Toronto (9-10-3), which has one win in eight games (1-5-2).
Joseph Woll allowed four goals on 25 shots before he was replaced after Anderson’s goal made it 4-0 at 13:11 of the second period. Dennis Hildeby made three saves in relief.
Hutson scored at 12:11 of the first period to put Montreal ahead 1-0. He one-timed a cross-ice pass from Nick Suzuki to shoot over Woll from low in the right face-off circle.
Dobson scored at 13:33 for a 2-0 lead with a one-timed slap shot from above the right face-off circle that deflected off Nylander’s stick and flew over Woll’s glove.
Dobson made it 3-0 at 4:09 of the second. The Montreal defenseman finished off a passing play that began with Juraj Slafkovsky hesitating after carrying the puck into the offensive zone before feeding the puck to Ivan Demidov to the right of the net. Demidov feathered a pass to Dobson, who drove hard to the right circle and one-timed a slap shot past Woll for his first two-goal game in the NHL.
Josh Anderson pushed it to 4-0 at 13:11 with a tight-angle shot from the right of the goal that found an opening between Woll’s arm and the right post.
Ekman-Larsson cut it to 4-1 at 17:19, extending his point streak to six games (two goals, four assists) with a wrist shot from above the left face-off circle past Dobes glove side.
Nylander drew the Maple Leafs within 4-2 with a power-play goal at 14:55 on a shot from the right point.
Anderson shot into an empty net from his half of the center-ice circle with 2:10 remaining for the 5-2 final.
Florian Xhekaj made his NHL debut for Montreal and got his first point with the setup pass to Anderson. The 21-year-old forward and younger brother of Canadiens defenseman Arber Xhekaj was recalled from Laval of the American Hockey League on Friday.
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