MONTREAL – Craig Berube liked what he saw — in most of the final 40 minutes.
The first period, meanwhile, looked far more like the version of the Toronto Maple Leafs that has them staring down a lengthy losing streak and a first missed trip to the playoffs since 2016.
The Montreal Canadiens jumped out to a 2-0 lead en route to a 3-1 win over their Original Six rivals Tuesday night, extending Toronto’s winless skid to eight games.
“They outskated us and had the play in the first period,” Leafs coach Berube said. “I thought we did a much better job in the second period, got ourselves back in the game. We just need more.
“We just needed more of a push from a lot of guys.”
The Canadiens dominated early, toying with the Leafs in the offensive zone to hold a 15-8 edge in shots after 20 minutes.
Zachary Bolduc saw an early chance go wide and Kaiden Guhle ripped a shot off Joseph Woll’s mask before Oliver Kapanen opened the scoring less than five minutes in, finishing a slick passing play with Ivan Demidov and Alex Newhook with a deke from the goal line.
Montreal kept pressing until Phillip Danault capitalized on a fortuitous bounce to make it 2-0 at 14:41, as Guhle’s dump-in ricocheted off the glass and landed on the veteran centre’s stick for his fifth of the season.
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“They definitely had the play in the first for sure, had the puck,” Berube said. “We didn’t check it off of them and then when we did, we didn’t do anything with the puck. Didn’t get up the ice as a five-man unit and create anything. We had five shots on net and a couple chances, but not enough.”
Toronto pushed back in the second period with William Nylander cutting into the lead after a give-and-go with Easton Cowan during a strong stretch in the second period, but Montreal shut the game down in the third — with help from two Leafs penalties in the final nine minutes.
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Nylander said although the push back may be encouraging, it’s still far from where the Maple Leafs need to be.
“It’s a lot of losses in a row now,” he said. “Parts of all the games we’ve been playing, we’ve been playing snippets of good hockey. And I mean, that’s not how we want to play when we play a full game of good hockey. So until we trend closer to that, I think (that’s when) it will be positive.
“They were kind of all over us. Sometimes that happens, teams are all over (you), but to give up that many chances to begin with, it’s kind of tough. Woll did a great job and kept us in the game all night.”
The Maple Leafs (27-27-11) fell 13 points outside the playoffs and 15 behind the Canadiens (35-18-10), who jumped to third in the Atlantic Division.
So why can’t Toronto put together a full game of “good hockey”?
“It’s tough to say, but it’s hard to win in this league if you don’t get it,” Berube said. “You don’t have to dominate a period, but you have to be in the game. You got to create and you got to defend.
“Throughout this stretch, there’s been a lot of good hockey, but then there’s that stretch of — if it’s a period or a 10-minute stretch in a period — where these teams score two, three goals on us.”
Berube then pointed out that the Leafs can’t score their way out of those lapses. Toronto captain Auston Matthews — a former 69-goal scorer — extended his goalless streak to 12 games on Tuesday.
“Right now, we can’t find the back of the net enough,” he said. “When this is going on, you got to keep the puck out of our net as much as possible, hopefully find our groove with the scoring, but we need more guys to dig in and contribute than there is right now.”
Over in the Canadiens dressing room, centre Jake Evans called the outing their “most complete game.”
“I felt the third period, we were in control for most of it,” he said. “We just didn’t get that third or maybe even fourth goal to take them out of it, and they fought hard to battle back.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 11, 2026.
© 2026 The Canadian Press
