Canadiens defeat Maple Leafs, end Campbell winning streak at 11
The Montreal Canadiens ended Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Jack Campbell’s NHL-record streak of 11 consecutive wins to start a season with a 4-2 victory at Bell Centre on Monday.
Campbell made 21 saves after setting the record in the Maple Leafs’ 6-5 win against the Ottawa Senators on Saturday. It was his first loss since March 6, 2020.
“I just think I wanted it all too bad and sometimes that doesn’t all work in your favor,” Campbell said. “Just let the game come to me, and when I do that everything works out.”
Canadiens goalie Carey Price, who missed his fourth straight game because of a lower-body injury, set the previous record when he started the 2016-17 season with 10 straight wins.
“There will come a time when I can look back at it, but right now I just want to move on from this one and be ready to go next time,” Campbell said.
Tomas Tatar scored twice, and Jake Allen made 23 saves in his fourth straight start for Montreal (18-12-9), which ended a three-game losing streak.
“It’s something to build off, that’s all it is,” Allen said. “You can’t get too high on one win. You’ve just got to keep building and find a way to get better every day. And I think there’s room for that.”
Auston Matthews scored his NHL-leading 32nd goal for Toronto (28-11-3), which had its six-game winning streak and 10-game point streak end (9-0-1).
“We just weren’t ready to go today, and that’s my job,” Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said. “The coach’s job is to get the team ready to play. We weren’t ready to play, so that one falls on me.”
Josh Anderson gave Montreal a 3-2 lead at 16:22 of the second, scoring on a wrist shot past Campbell’s glove from the right side after Toronto scored twice earlier in the period to tie it.
Tatar made it 4-2 with a backhand into an empty net at 17:35 of the third period after Campbell was pulled for an extra attacker.
“It was important for us as a team to bounce back,” Canadiens forward Phillip Danault said. “We knew we had a little slump and we showed a lot of character tonight. We were a bit hesitant in the second period, but we recovered and started winning battles again, so it was a big character win. And you have to give Jake credit, too. He made big saves and gave us a chance to win.”
Matthews, who scored his third NHL hat trick Saturday, redirected Mitchell Marner’s pass for his eighth goal of a five-game goal streak to cut the lead to 2-1 at 9:28 of the second.
John Tavares scored on a backhand off a goalmouth scramble at 14:57 to tie it at 2-2.
“We were sloppy, they got off to a two-goal lead, but then I thought we battled back,” Maple Leafs forward Zach Hyman said. “But we put ourselves in a hole early.”
Tatar scored at 1:17 of the first to put the Canadiens up 1-0. He redirected the puck into the net from the left edge of the crease after it caromed to him off the skate of Maple Leafs forward Alex Galchenyuk.
Nick Suzuki made it 2-0 with a power-play goal on a wrist shot from the right face-off circle at 7:53.
“We really wanted to come out tonight and set the pace and start off the period the right way,” Anderson said. “And I thought we did that for the most part. Obviously they made a good push in the second, but I thought we did a lot of good things tonight.”
Tonight’s Leafs lines in Montreal.#LeafsForever | @bochnereye pic.twitter.com/T1ZRQV2v50
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) April 12, 2021