{"id":355826,"date":"2025-12-19T16:27:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T16:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/355826\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T16:27:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T16:27:13","slug":"zachary-bolduc-lane-hutson-lead-montreal-canadiens-past-chicago-blackhawks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/355826\/","title":{"rendered":"Zachary Bolduc, Lane Hutson lead Montreal Canadiens past Chicago Blackhawks"},"content":{"rendered":"

MONTREAL \u2014 Zachary Bolduc<\/a> scored twice and Lane Hutson<\/a> produced three assists as the Montreal Canadiens<\/a> defeated the Chicago Blackhawks<\/a> 4-1 on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

Noah Dobson<\/a> also scored for Montreal (18-12-4), while Jakub Dobes<\/a> stopped 14 shots. Nick Suzuki<\/a> added an empty-net goal and one assist.<\/p>\n

Frank Nazar<\/a> scored the lone goal for Chicago (13-15-6) in the team\u2019s second game without injured star centre Connor Bedard<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Spencer Knight<\/a> made 32 saves as the Blackhawks lost for the fourth straight game.<\/p>\n

Nazar opened the scoring on Chicago\u2019s first shot, redirecting a pass behind Dobes after a Canadiens defensive breakdown at 7:27 in the first period.<\/p>\n

Bolduc cranked a one-timer from the slot off a Cole Caufield<\/a> feed to tie the game at 14:23 with his eighth of the season, and first at the Bell Centre.<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old Bolduc from Trois-Rivi\u00e8res, Que., added his second of the night with a deflection 20 seconds into the third period, before Dobson made it 3-1 at the 10-minute mark after chasing down a rebound.<\/p>\n

It was a successful night for coach\u2019s challenges. The Canadiens had two goals overturned for offside, and one Blackhawks goal was brought back for goalie interference.<\/p>\n

Takeaways<\/p>\n

Canadiens: Dominated the shots 35-15 in a game that wasn\u2019t as tightly contested as the score indicated much of the night. Hutson led the team with 26:19 of ice time in its second straight game without injured defenceman Mike Matheson<\/a> (upper body).<\/p>\n

Blackhawks: Nazar pretended to throw a monkey off his back after ending a 21-game goalless drought. Knight kept the Blackhawks alive for much of the game while the Canadiens drove the play.<\/p>\n

Key moment<\/p>\n

Bolduc \u2014 acquired from St. Louis last summer \u2014 let out a huge cheer and pumped his fists as the crowd erupted after his first goal in the Canadiens\u2019 home jersey.<\/p>\n

Key stat<\/p>\n

With his assist on Bolduc\u2019s first goal, Hutson became the first defenceman in Canadiens history to record 60 in a calendar year.<\/p>\n

Up next<\/p>\n

Canadiens: Host the Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Blackhawks: Visit the Ottawa Senators<\/a> on Saturday.<\/p>\n

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 18, 2025.<\/p>\n

Daniel Rainbird, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MONTREAL \u2014 Zachary Bolduc scored twice and Lane Hutson produced three assists as the Montreal Canadiens defeated the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-355826","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}