The usually slow-starting Montreal Canadiens (40-16-5) scored three first period goals to cruise to a 5-2 decision over the Blue Jackets in Columbus Thursday evening.
P.K. Subban scored a goal and collected two assists to move him into a second-place tie with Kris Letang in the defence scoring lead, as both have 47 points, one less than the injured Mark Giordano. Subban and his defence partner Andrei Markov both went +5 on the night.
Jacob De La Rose scored his first-ever NHL goal, redirecting a shot by Brandon Prust past Curtis McElhinney. He didn't wait long to score his second, as he notched an empty-net goal with just seconds remaining.
Carey Price won his 10th straight road game, extending his team record, which he broke in St. Louis Tuesday in another 5-2 victory.
Devante Smith-Pelly, in his first game for Montreal, led the Habs with four hits in 17:11 of ice time on a line with Tomas Plekanec and Alex Galchenyuk.
“It was fun, you don’t really know what to expect with a new team but I’m starting to feel comfortable, still trying to learn the new system but once I do, it’ll be alright,” said Smith-Pelly, who got some time on the second unit of the power play and said that he was trying to duplicate Brendan Gallagher's habit of standing in front of the opposition net.
Max Pacioretty scored his 30th goal of the season, which put him in sixth place in the goal scoring race. He was a +2 on the night and now leads the league with a +36 on the plus/minus scale.
“These games aren’t always easy to play, especially after we won a big, emotional game in St Louis. The important thing coming here was to have a good start and we were able to do that, we got the lead in the first period,” said Coach Michel Therrien after the game.
The Blue Jackets outshot the Canadiens 27-26.
With the victory, the Canadiens completed their season series against Columbus with regulation wins in all three games, as the Habs prevailed 3-2 on January 14 and 3-1 on February 21.
With their three first-period goals, the Canadiens are no longer last in first-period goals scored, as their 31 goals have allowed them to leapfrog the Buffalo Sabres. Last season the Habs scored 71 goals in the first period.
The Canadiens next play against the Maple Leafs in Montreal before heading out on a four game Western swing.
Scoring First period:
01:49 P.K. Subban (12) (Andrei Markov, Manny Malhotra) 1 - 0
02:43 Brandon Dubinsky (8) (David Savard, Cam Atkinson) 1 - 1
04:25 Andrei Markov (8) (David Desharnais) 2 - 1
14:36 Max Pacioretty (30) (Brendan Gallagher, P.K. Subban) 3 - 1
Second period
no scoring
Third period
05:33 Jacob De La Rose (1) (Brandon Prust, P.K. Subban) 4 - 1
07:53 Marko Dano (3) (Artem Anisimov, David Savard) 4 - 2
19:43 Jacob De La Rose (2) (empty-net, unassisted) 5 - 2
