Canadiens score 5 in row, surge past Mammoth

MONTREAL -- Cole Caufield scored two of five consecutive goals by the Montreal Canadiens, who came from behind for a 6-2 win against the Utah Mammoth at Bell Centre on Saturday.

“Up and down the lineup tonight everybody did their job,” said Caufield, who is tied with Colorado's Nathan MacKinnon for the NHL lead with 12 goals. “Whether it was scoring goals or keeping the puck out of the net, I think there was a lot of compete. They’re a pretty fast and skilled team and they can make you pay if you’re not on the same page.”

Oliver Kapanen and Alex Newhook each had a goal and an assist, and Sam Montembeault made 25 saves for Montreal (10-3-2), which has a six-game point streak (4-0-2).

“I think it was our best third period of the year,” Montembeault said. “We kept applying pressure and they were down by a goal so you know that they were going to try to force something, and we just waited for them playing the right way. When they tried and made mistakes we went back the other way and capitalized on them.”

Kailer Yamamoto and Lawson Crouse scored for Utah (9-6-0), which has lost four of five since a seven-game winning streak. Karel Vejmelka made 18 saves.

“I don’t think the result reflects what happened on the ice,” Mammoth coach Andre Tourigny said. “They’re a good team, they execute and they were really opportunistic in their opportunities early in the game, and I think that changed the outcome.”

Caufield tied it 2-2 at 6:44 of the second period. He took a pass from Noah Dobson behind the net and skated toward the left corner before spinning around and scoring from a tight angle with a shot that found an opening glove side between Vejmelka and the left post.

“I’d say if it’s his blocker there’s no chance it’s going in,” Caufield said. “Not a high-percentage look, but it sometimes goes in.”

Newhook then put Montreal up 3-2 at 13:13 when he cut past JJ Peterka at the top of the right face-off circle and moved to the slot before scoring on a wrist shot glove side.

Caufield made it 4-2 at 13:29 of the third period with his second of the game. He retrieved the puck behind the net and came out front to jam it under Vejmelka inside the left post.

“That kind of felt like a backbreaker for us and then just from there on out it kind of snowballed and got away from us too quickly,” Crouse said. “I think that’s a message for our group. It can go quick in this league if you’re not on your details. And at the end of the day, we’ve got find a way to start coming out with some wins here.”

Nick Suzuki pushed it to 5-2 at 18:00 when he scored on a 3-on-1 following a Utah turnover, and Kirby Dach scored with a backhand on a breakaway at 19:23 for the 6-2 final.

“That’s a big period for us, to show the maturity in our group,” Newhook said of the third.

Yamamoto made it 1-0 at 3:03 of the first period. He scored on Utah’s first shot, burying a rebound after Ian Cole’s centering attempt bounced to him off Montembeault’s right pad.

Kapanen tied it 1-1 on the rush at 14:45, taking a return pass from Ivan Demidov in the right circle and drove in to score on a wrist shot through Vejmelka’s pads.

Crouse put the Mammoth up 2-1 at 6:02 of the second, snapping a shot from the left hash marks off a backhand pass from Michael Carcone.

“In the third, when we needed a push we could not win draws,” Tourigny said. “We had a tough time to generate possession from there, and then after that we need to capitalize on our power play as well. That is an area where we need to improve. I think we had good looks on our power play (0-for-2) but we need to have that killer instinct and score the big goal.

“And it’s the same thing at 5-on-5. The first two periods we generated really good chances but we could not separate ourselves and we let a really good team hang around, and they found a way.”

NOTES: Suzuki has 20 points (four goals, 16 assists) in 15 games, the fewest games a Canadiens player has needed to reach that mark since Saku Koivu had 20 points (seven goals, 13 assists) through 14 games in 1996-97. … Demidov (assist) has 13 points (four goals, nine assists) in 15 games. He is the first Montreal rookie to have that many points through his first 15 games of a season since Kjell Dahlin had 15 points (eight goals, seven assists) in his first 15 games in 1985-86. … The Mammoth scored first for the fifth straight game and seventh time in eight games.