Laine scores 5th goal in 3 games, Canadiens sweep home-and-home from Red Wings

MONTREAL -- Patrik Laine scored his fifth power-play goal in three games, and the Montreal Canadiens swept back-to-back games against the Detroit Red Wings with a 5-1 win at Bell Centre on Saturday.

Nick Suzuki and Lane Hutson each had two assists, and Sam Montembeault made 20 saves in his ninth straight start for Montreal (14-16-3), which has won three straight for the first time this season.

“You look at our starts lately, we come in waves, there aren’t a lot of passengers, that’s what it takes,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. “And when you have that, you give yourself a chance.”

Joe Veleno scored, and Alex Lyon made 19 saves for the Red Wings (13-16-4), who had won three of four before losing 4-3 to the Canadiens at home Friday.

“They just outworked us today,” Red Wings defenseman Moritz Seider said. “They came out with a good game plan, they had good intensity, and we just couldn’t match that over 60 minutes, and now we look at a result like that.”

Veleno scored at 6:41 of the first period to give Detroit a 1-0 lead. He was unmarked to the right of the crease to deflect Jonatan Berggren’s sharp pass from the slot inside the right post.

Juraj Slafkovsky tied it 1-1 at 14:14 when he deflected Suzuki’s shot from the point.

Jake Evans gave Montreal a 2-1 lead at 15:26. He cut across the top of the left face-off circle and put a wrist shot over Lyon’s right shoulder from the top of the slot.

“I love Jake’s game,” Suzuki said. “He’s earning everything out there and making amazing plays. His line’s been a driving force for us these last couple of weeks so it’s nice to see them getting rewarded.”

Laine made it 3-1 at 19:21 with his eighth power-play goal in nine games since making his season and Canadiens debut Dec. 3. He took a pass from Hutson high in the left face-off circle and scored with a low shot that deflected into the net off Red Wings defenseman Ben Chiarot’s stick.

“He’s a threat,” Red Wings forward Patrick Kane said. “Any time you give him a little space over there, with his shot, it’s got a good chance of going in or creating something and it’s a big threat. Obviously, he’s been really good for their team and a big threat over there on the one-timing side.”

Suzuki got the secondary assist on the goal; he and Hutson each has seven assists on Laine’s power-play goals.

“It’s fun, I mean, there’s threats everywhere and we’re tough to defend,” Suzuki said. “So right now the power play is clicking, and we just want to keep that going.”

Emil Heineman put the Canadiens up 4-1 at 2:40 of the second period with a wrist shot under Lyon’s right pad from the slot.

“We wanted to have a good game at home before the new year,” Suzuki said. “And we started right away, got down a goal but didn’t change and played our way back into the game and took control.”

Brendan Gallagher pushed it to 5-1 at 13:03. He ripped a one-timed slap shot past Lyon’s glove from above the right face-off circle on a backhand pass from Josh Anderson.

“It’s unfortunate because we had a really good start,” Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde said. “Not only the goal but we had some pace, we had some zone time and then we let it get away from us a little bit there in the first. But I still thought that we would be OK, we could build something in the second. It’s a team that does give you looks, it does give you chances, and we just spent too much time in our zone. We couldn’t get stops.”

NOTES: Chiarot left the game after the second period with an upper-body injury. Lalonde had no further update. … Laine has scored Montreal's past eight power-play goals. He is the first NHL player on record since 1933-34 to score eight consecutive team power-play goals. Phil Esposito (1970-71) and Bronco Horvath (1959-60) each scored seven consecutive Boston Bruins power-play goals, and Nels Stewart scored seven straight by the New York Americans in 1936-37. … Laine is the fifth player to score his first eight goals with a franchise on the power play. He joined Risto Siltanen (10) of the Quebec Nordiques, Marek Zidlicky (10) of the Minnesota Wild, Dwight Bialowas (8) of the Minnesota North Stars and Victor Olofsson (8) of the Buffalo Sabres.