The Montreal Canadiens are riding a four-game winning streak as they prepare to host the Pittsburgh Penguins Saturday night.
The victories all occurred on a four-game road trip.
“Our way to handle these third periods, up a goal or two goals,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said after Thursday’s 5-2 win over the host Dallas Stars. “We’ve been up two in all the third periods that we’ve played (on this road trip). … We were able to show some maturity on this trip. That’s really the foundation of our closing out games and success.”
Cole Caufield, who has a team-leading eight goals on the season, and Alex Newhook scored two goals apiece Thursday night. Phillip Danault added his first goal of 2026-27, into an empty net, to accompany an assist, while defenseman Noah Dobson produced two assists and Jakub Dobes stopped 17 shots.
“It was a mature win,” Caufield said. “Everybody was going, everybody knew they had a job to do (Thursday). It’s a good team over there. I feel like we didn’t give them much.”
Defenseman Mike Matheson was a late scratch because of a lower-body injury and is listed as day-to-day.
Defenseman Lane Hutson collected his 136th career assist, which broke the franchise record for players under 23. The previous record-holder was Henri Richard.
Pittsburgh suffered a gut punch of a loss on Thursday in a 4-3 overtime decision to the visiting Utah Mammoth.
Ben Kindel returned to the lineup after missing two games due to a vasovagal syncope — sudden drop of the heart rate that reduces blood flow to the brain — on the team plane Oct. 20. The 19-year-old broke a 2-2 tie with 25 seconds left in regulation.
But with the Mammoth goalie pulled for the extra attacker, Pittsburgh native Logan Cooley scored with one second remaining to send the contest into overtime and complete his hat trick.
“I wouldn’t say any emotion,” Kindel said after the contest. “It’s just nice to score a goal for the team and chip in when I can.”
Utah defenseman Mikhail Sergachev got the OT winner 3:27 into the extra period.
“I mean, practice tomorrow,” said Evgeni Malkin, who had two assists. “We’ll see video. We fix mistakes. (It’s the) only way, you know? … It’s like, under 20 seconds, and they score a goal.
“We need to play, like, so much harder, whole five guys. … Yeah, it’s a little bit tough that we lost.”
The Penguins, who had won their previous two games, rallied from a 2-0 deficit after Cooley scored twice in the first period.
“We battled hard to come back into it and get the lead,” defenseman Kris Letang said. “But I think, overall, the performance was not there.”
Goaltender Arturs Silovs was spectacular, keeping Pittsburgh in the game with 30 saves. Kindel added an assist while Erik Karlsson and Rickard Rakell also scored.
Karlsson leads the Penguins with 13 points (two goals, 11 assists).
In addition to Kindel, defenseman Sam Girard returned after missing three games with a lower-body injury. Egor Chinakhov was in the lineup after sitting out four of the five previous contests with a lower-body injury, and Malkin played after not participating in the 3-2 overtime win over the visiting Nashville Predators this past Saturday due to illness.