The Montreal Canadiens wanted to jump out to a quick start on Saturday, and that's exactly what they did— three times.
The Canadiens, not known for their quick starts to games, scored early in all three periods of their 6-4 victory over the visiting New York Islanders on Saturday.
P.K. Subban scored 1:56 into the first, Dale Weise doubled the Habs' lead 10 seconds into the second, and Alex Galchenyuk scored 52 seconds into the third en route to Montreal's fifth victory against the Islanders in the teams' last six encounters.
"It's no surprise that we're not a good starting team," said Weise, whose tap-in goal in the second equalled his career high in points (16) set last season. "For whatever reason that is, we wanted to focus on that tonight. Every start to every period, we came out and we pushed the tempo.
"I don't know what it was. We were just really focused tonight. We wanted to send a message to the league that this is a tough place to play."
Got on board early
Montreal (28-13-3) is ranked 29th in the NHL for first-period productivity, ahead of only the Buffalo Sabres. The Habs have scored a paltry 18 first-period goals in 44 games this season.
Against the Islanders on Saturday, though, Montreal wasted no time getting on the scoreboard, tallying the first goal of the game on the home team's second shot on goaltender Jaroslav Halak. With forward Ryan Strome in the box for tripping, Andrei Markov faked a slap shot from the point before feeding Subban, whose one-timer blew by the former Hab in net.
Weise put the Habs up 2-0 right off the opening faceoff in the second. Tomas Plekanec stole the puck from Isles captain John Tavares, who was caught flat-footed on the play, before feeding a streaking Weise in front of goal. The point was Plekanec's first of four on the night.
"We got a good start— right away we scored on the power play," said Plekanec, who scored twice and added two assists. "Second period, same thing, we got a goal right off the first shift, so that's huge to build confidence."
In the third, Alex Galchenyuk gave the Canadiens a 4-2 lead after jumping on a loose puck at the side of the net, to Halak's left.
No Price, no problem
"It just shows that we were ready to play tonight," said Dustin Tokarski, who got the start in net in place of the injured Carey Price. "If guys can come out of the periods and we can go up early like that, it's huge. It gets the crowd into it, for sure."
Tokarski made 27 saves on 31 shots for his fifth victory of the season after losing to the Ottawa Senators on Thursday.
The Islanders (30-14-1), meanwhile, gave Halak the start between the pipes on back-to-back nights for the second time this season. Halak made 21 saves in New York's 6-3 come-from-behind win versus the Penguins on Friday.
The Czech Republic native came into this one with a perfect four wins in four games against his former club while conceding a total four goals.
But it was an uphill battle for Halak on Saturday, with Jack Capuano's men getting into penalty trouble early for the second straight game. The Islanders rank 27th in the league on the penalty kill, and it showed just two minutes into the contest when Subban notched his 10th of the year.
Halak, who stopped 27-of-33 shots in defeat, was pulled and replaced by Chad Johnson after Montreal's sixth goal.
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