VANCOUVER — Tyler Toffoli scored two goals after a hat trick the previous night, and the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Vancouver Canucks 7-3 at Rogers Arena on Thursday.
Joel Armia scored two goals and had two assists, and Jake Allen made 14 saves in his second start for the Canadiens (3-0-2), who lost 6-5 in the shootout to the Canucks on Wednesday.
Bo Horvat scored two goals for the second straight game, and Thatcher Demko made 35 saves for the Canucks (2-4-0), who have lost four of the past five games.
The teams will finish their three-game set in Vancouver on Saturday.
Toffoli, who scored a hat trick in his first game against his former team Wednesday, made it 1-0 on a rebound 1:54 into the first period. He set up Armia’s shorthanded breakaway to put the Canadiens ahead 2-1 at 5:27, then scored shorthanded 1:13 into the second period to give Montreal a 3-2 lead.
Horvat tied the game 1-1 at 3:20 of the first with a deflection at the side to the net. After Armia put Montreal in front, but Horvat tied it 2-2 with a one-timer on the power play at 7:13.
Toffoli tied Horvat for the NHL lead with his fifth goal after an Elias Pettersson giveaway at the blue line early in the second period before Josh Anderson (14:56), Jake Evans (15:05) and Armia (16:30) scored three goals in 94 seconds to make it 6-2.
Brandon Sutter scored at 4:56 of the third period to make it 6-3.
Ben Chiarot scored on the power play with 1:05 left for the 7-3 final.
