Caufield pushes point streak to 10, Canadiens top Maple Leafs in shootout

TORONTO -- Cole Caufield scored to extend his point streak to 10 games for the Montreal Canadiens in a 2-1 shootout win against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena on Saturday.

Caufield and Alexandre Texier each scored in the shootout for the Canadiens, who are 2-2 in the shootout this season.

Caufield has 12 points (three goals, nine assists) during his streak, the longest active run in the NHL.

“I liked [our game] a lot,” Caufield said. “We’ve been kind of focusing on the full 200 feet, not just in the defensive zone. They’ve got a lot of dynamic players who make plays, and I thought we did a good job limiting their touches. Our whole defensive core played very well tonight and obviously [Jakub] Dobes too but all around, that’s something we can build off of.”

Dobes made 22 saves for the Canadiens (15-9-3), who are 2-2-0 in their past four games.

“I think the defensive part of our game tonight was the best I’ve seen it, to be honest,” Montreal coach Martin St. Louis said. “We didn’t give them much. We know what we are capable of but it is, ‘Are you willing to do the things [needed].’ It’s not just what you’re capable of and that’s what we did tonight. Did we raise the standards in that department? My guess is yes. Now it’s up to the players to keep those standards. I know the game is going to challenge you, the schedule is going to challenge you but as much as we can, we know what we have in that department, and can we repeat that knowing that it is hard to do.”

Scott Laughton scored, and Dennis Hildeby made 33 saves for the Maple Leafs (13-11-4), who are 3-0-1 in their past four. Toronto is 0-1 in the shootout this season.

“Missed the net like 15 times tonight at least, I think that’s a number,” Toronto coach Craig Berube said. “Good opportunities too. We have to hit the net on those opportunities. The power play needs to come through for us and it didn’t, but I thought our goaltending was good and we got a point out of it.”

Toronto went 0-for-3 on the power play including failing to score on a two-minute minor penalty to Arber Xhekaj for hooking at 14:33 of the third period with the game tied 1-1.

“Right now, what I see when I watch it, they’re unsure of themselves a little bit,” Berube said. “In particular, a power play in the second period, we moved it well and we don’t take a shot. The shots are there and we’re not taking them.”

Caufield put the Canadiens up 1-0 at 8:25 of the second period on the power play when he took a pass from Ivan Demidov at the side of the net and jammed it in.

“These games are tight,” Caufield said. “The power play, penalty kill is going to win us some games this year, and it just shows the importance of us getting one on the power play. … It was a huge two points for us.”

Montreal outshot Toronto 14-3 in the second period.

“We’ve been talking about it for the last couple days, just to be better defensively and just have better details in our defensive zone,” Dobes said. “I’m really proud of the guys for stepping up and focus on helping us goalies. I feel like if they help us and we help then with a couple saves, we are a really good team.”

Laughton tied it 1-1 at 10:28 of the third period. He took a pass from Nicolas Roy in the neutral zone to spring him on a short-handed breakaway and put a slap shot past Dobes’ glove from the slot, extending his goal streak to three games.

“I’ve done it before a couple times, just thought that was the play and I was lucky enough it went in,” Laughton said. “Definitely fired up. I wasn’t too happy when they scored on their power play, I let a seam pass go through, and they found the next seam.”

Dobes said Laughton’s slapshot on a breakaway caught him off guard.

“Yeah, haven’t seen that in a while. It’s tough to practice,” Dobes said. “Good for him, good for him, he made a pretty cool move. I’ll watch it with my goalie coach and go from there.”

NOTES: The Maple Leafs had a streak of four straight games where they scored on their first shot end. … Maple Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly played his 900th NHL game. He was plus-1 in 19:30 of ice time. … Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki had a seven-game point streak (four goals, six assists) and a six-game assist streak (six assists) end.