MONTREAL — The Montreal Canadiens continued their slide in the Eastern Hockey League standings with their second loss in 24 hours on Sunday, this time with a score of 4-2 to the Anaheim Ducks.
The Habs haven't won in the Ducks' home since March 5, 2014 -- a 4-3 shootout victory.
Head coach Dominique Ducharme's men completed their four-game trip to the American west with a 1-3 record, and sit in 31st (second-to-last) place in the NHL -- just ahead of the Arizona Coyotes.
Adam Henrique, Vinni Lettieri, Troy Terry and Sam Carrick, in an empty net, blackened the score sheet for the Ducks (3-4-3), who earned their first win since an Oct. 18 victory over the Calgary Flames.
Mike Hoffman and Jake Evans battled back for the Canadiens (2-8-0), who have their worst record after 10 games since the 2017-18 season (2-7-1), or their second-worst since 1948.
The Ducks converted two of their six power plays, while the CH was limited to one goal on four occasions.
Goaltender Samuel Montembeault made his second start for the Habs this season after his Oct .14 start against the Buffalo Sabres. He made 22 saves in the loss.
His counterpart, John Gibson, turned aside 16 shots in front of the Ducks' cage.
As has been the case for some time now, the Habs quickly conceded the first goal to the opposition.
The game was not even four minutes in when Henrique got on the board on the power play. However, the counter-attack didn't take long to occur.
33 seconds after Henrique's net, Hoffman took advantage of a power play to beat Gibson's watchful eye with a blistering slapshot. It was the fourth goal in five games for the Tricolore rookie.
Lettieri put the Ducks ahead 2-1 at 12:47 in the first period. It was his first goal of the campaign, which came during a major penalty called on The second period was pretty uneventful, at least until Evans, back from a three-game absence, brought both teams back to square one with a loose puck in the slot with 1:55 to go in the period.
All hopes were now set for the third period.
Terry put the finishing touches on a breakaway, however, with a nice backhand fake past Montembeault at 10:10. On the sequence, Ryan Getzlaf became the Ducks' all-time leading scorer with 989 points.
Carrick then sealed the game with a shot into an empty net with 1:10 to play.
The Canadiens will return to the Bell Centre on Tuesday night to host the Detroit Red Wings.
(The Canadian Press)
