ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) Derek Grant scored the first two goals of his NHL career, getting the second while the Anaheim Ducks scored three goals in a 97-second span of the third period during a 6-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Friday night.
Brandon Montour, Antoine Vermette and Chris Wagner had a goal and an assist apiece for the Ducks, who scored just two goals in their previous two games before shredding Montreal goalie Carey Price. Dennis Rasmussen also scored his first goal for the Ducks during Anaheim’s three-goal first period.
John Gibson made 49 saves for Anaheim, including a franchise-record 28 during a wild second period.
Paul Byron and Brendan Gallagher scored and Price made 39 saves for the Canadiens (1-6-1), who have lost seven straight during their worst start to a season since 1941.
One game after Montreal yielded four goals in the third period of a loss at Los Angeles, the Canadiens allowed Anaheim’s three-goal flurry in the third. Montour broke open the game with an exceptional one-timer from the boards after Kevin Bieksa’s stick shattered on his own shot attempt, and Grant and Wagner added goals 23 seconds apart.
The Ducks lost defenseman Cam Fowler in the first period to an apparent right leg injury. Anaheim’s cornerstone blueliner was hurt when he went awkwardly into the boards with Phillip Danault’s stick caught in his skate, and he left the ice unable to put weight on his leg.
Rasmussen and Grant, two veteran grinding centers, both made the most of playing opportunities created by the injury absences of Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf and Ryan Kesler. Getzlaf missed his third straight game with a lower-body injury, while Kesler is out indefinitely after offseason hip surgery.
Grant, the 27-year-old veteran of previous NHL stints with Buffalo and Nashville, got his first career goal during the first period of his 93rd game. The Ducks also ended their 0-for-21 start on the power play, becoming the last team in the league to score with the man advantage.
Byron and Gallagher scored on rebounds in the second, but Gibson broke the previous team record of 24 saves in a period shared by his predecessors, Jonas Hiller and Frederik Andersen.
Gibson finished two saves shy of the single-game franchise record.
NOTES: Price dropped to 0-4-0 in his career at Honda Center. … Habs D Karl Alzner played in his 548th consecutive regular-season game, the fifth-longest active streak in the NHL. Ducks F Andrew Cogliano played in his 793rd straight game to extend the league’s longest active streak. … Ducks D Francois Beauchemin’s assist on Grant’s first goal was the 199th of his NHL career and the first point of his third career stint in Anaheim. … Ondrej Kase returned to Anaheim’s lineup after missing three games with an upper-body injury.
UP NEXT
Canadiens: Host Panthers on Tuesday to open a three-game homestand.
Ducks: At Flyers on Tuesday to open a four-game road trip.
—
More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/tag/NHLhockey
25% Bonus via Western Union
