Canadiens try to halt skid, cool off surging Avs

The Colorado Avalanche have been playing at a championship level for more than a month and will try to continue that trend when they visit the Montreal Canadiens on Monday night.

Colorado is 12-3-1 since Dec. 11 and just finished a particularly successful week, beating the Boston Bruins, Vegas Golden Knights and Toronto Maple Leafs.

The Avalanche trailed Toronto 3-0 after the first period in the opener of the five-game road trip on Saturday night before scoring five straight goals in the 5-3 victory.

"We have good players, but we can't rely on digging ourselves out of a hole every night," said Colorado star center Nathan MacKinnon, who had a goal and an assist against Toronto to extend his point streak to seven games.

MacKinnon's linemates, Jonathan Drouin and Mikko Rantanen, also collected a goal and an assist, drawing praise from Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe.

"The top group they have, that's big time," Keefe said.

And when MacKinnon's line is joined by offensive-minded defensemen Cale Makar and Devon Toews, the Avalanche can be unstoppable in the offensive end.

"That's not the NHL," Keefe said. "That's another league."

The win on Saturday night also allowed Colorado to finally gain some ground on the Winnipeg Jets for first place in the Central Division.

The Jets had won eight straight and earned points in 14 in a row (12-0-2) before losing 2-0 to the visiting Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday, allowing the Avalanche to pull within a point of first place entering Monday.

The Avalanche played the Maple Leafs without forward Valeri Nichushkin, who sat out with an illness. Nichushkin is tied for second on Colorado with 22 goals.

Colorado defenseman Jack Johnson left the Toronto game late in the second period, and coach Jared Bednar told reporters after the game that Johnson "pulled something" but was hopeful he would be available against Montreal.

The Canadiens will be trying to avoid losing their fourth in a row, which would match their longest skid of the season.

They've stayed close in recent games. Montreal's past four matchups have been settled by one goal and three have gone beyond regulation.

Jake Allen will start in goal against the Avalanche after Sam Montembeault made 41 saves to earn first star of the game in a 2-1 overtime loss to the visiting Edmonton Oilers on Saturday night, the 10th consecutive win for Edmonton.

Allen hasn't been playing nearly as much or as well as Montembeault of late, allowing five goals on 37 shots in his most recent start on Jan. 4, a 6-1 loss to the Buffalo Sabres. His last win came on Dec. 18 in a 3-2 overtime win against the Jets.

Allen has had some success against the Avalanche in his 11-year career, however, owning a 9-6-3 mark with a 2.42 goals-against average, .920 save percentage and two shutouts.

Canadiens forward Joshua Roy became the seventh Montreal rookie to make his NHL debut this season. He played 13:03 against Edmonton after he was recalled from Laval of the American Hockey League on Friday to replace Josh Anderson, who is day-to-day with a lower-body injury.

"He has to get his feet wet and I kept him away from (Connor McDavid) and (Leon Draisaitl) and he did some good things out there," Montreal coach Martin St. Louis said of Roy, who was selected first overall in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League's 2019 amateur draft, but fell to the fifth round two years later in the NHL draft.

—Field Level Media