Caufield gets hat trick, 2 assists, Canadiens score 7 to pull away from Islanders

MONTREAL -- Cole Caufield scored his third NHL hat trick and had two assists for a career-high five points, and the Montreal Canadiens won 7-3 against the New York Islanders at Bell Centre on Saturday.

“Obviously it’s a big win and the puck felt like it was going in tonight,” Caufield said.

Juraj Slafkovsky scored twice and had two assists for his first career four-point game, and Nick Suzuki had four assists as Montreal’s top line combined for 13 points.

Slafkovsky (four goals, five assists) and Suzuki (three goals, eight assists) each extended his point streak to six games, and Caufield’s streak reached five games (six goals, four assists).

“I’m just trying to do my best, trying to help the team, try and get us going when things are not going our way, and it worked out today,” Slafkovsky said. “But we’ve got 13 games left so we’ve just got to keep pushing and keep doing this every night.”

Kaiden Guhle had a goal and two assists, and Jacob Fowler made 19 saves for the Canadiens (38-21-10), who had lost three of four (1-3-0), including 3-1 at the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday.

Montreal remained four points behind the Tampa Bay Lightning for second place in the Atlantic Division.

“Our group is finding its best version, but I feel you can’t have a group finding its best version without the individual finding their best version,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. “And a lot of guys are starting to find their best version.”

Matthew Schaefer scored for the Islanders (39-26-5), who lost 3-2 at the Ottawa Senators on Thursday after winning four of five (4-1-0). Ilya Sorokin allowed six goals on 32 shots before he was replaced at 11:20 of the third period. David Rittich saved three of the four shots he faced in relief.

New York remained one point behind the Detroit Red Wings for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.

“I think it slipped away in the second period, when we hit those two posts,” Islanders coach Patrick Roy said. “I thought that was the difference in the game, and we could have made it 3-1, and they scored that late goal in that second period on their power play. We tied the game. Unfortunately, it was a bad bounce on that fourth one, and from there they just took over the game.”

Caufield gave Montreal a 3-2 lead at 19:08 of the second period with the first of his two power-play goals, the second of the Canadiens’ three in the game. Montreal’s first 40-goal scorer since Vincent Damphousse in 1993-94 got his 41st of the season, the most by a Canadiens player in a season since Stephane Richer scored 51 goals in 1989-90.

Schaefer’s power-play goal tied it 3-3 when he scored 45 seconds into the third period on a one-timer from the point. It was the 18-year-old’s 22nd goal of the season, moving him within one of tying Brian Leetch’s record for the most goals in a season by a rookie defenseman (23 goals in 1988-89).

Montreal then scored four consecutive goals to take a 7-3 lead.

Guhle put Montreal ahead 4-3 at 3:17 before Slafkovsky pushed it to 5-3 on a snap shot from in front at 8:08 for his second of the game. 

Caufield then scored his second of the game at 11:20 for a 6-3 lead, finishing on a wrist shot from the edge of the right circle.

Caufield scored his second straight, his 43rd, on the power play at 14:59 to complete the hat trick and make it 7-3.

“We lost a little momentum at the end of the second but came in here thinking we got ourselves a hockey game,” Islanders forward Anders Lee said. “It’s just a one-goal deficit going into the third, and for whatever reason, they kept transitioning on us and we made a couple of turnovers and had a couple of missed assignments. The next thing you know, they put a few in.”

The Islanders had a goal waved off at 6:48 of the second period when Schaefer’s stick made contact with the puck above the level of the crossbar before it went in.

Slafkovsky gave the Canadiens a 1-0 lead on the power play at 4:10 of the first period. He snapped a one-timer past Sorokin’s glove from the top of the right circle.

Emil Heineman’s power-play goal tied it 1-1 at 6:46. He got to a loose puck and ripped a shot past Fowler’s glove from the left face-off dot for his 20th goal.

Simon Holmstrom put New York up 2-1 at 13:19 when he deked Fowler and scored on the forehand for a highlight-reel goal after Adam Pelech sent him in alone.

Alex Newhook tied it 2-2 at 17:49 of the second period when he one-timed Guhle's pass to score from the right circle.

NOTES: Schaefer tied Barry Beck for the second-most goals in a season by a rookie defenseman. Beck was 20 years old when he scored 22 goals for the Colorado Rockies in 1977-78. … Caufield had his 11th multigoal game of the season, the most by a Canadiens player since Richer had 12 in 1989-90. … Suzuki is the first Montreal player with four assists in a game since Jeff Petry on Feb. 1, 2020. … The last time the Canadiens had three players with four or more points in the same game was Jan. 10, 2004. Sheldon Souray had six points (one goal, five assists), and Michael Ryder (two goals, two assists) and Mike Ribeiro (one goal, three assists) each had four points in an 8-0 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins.