{"id":529301,"date":"2026-03-11T14:51:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T14:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/529301\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T14:51:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T14:51:09","slug":"kapanen-scores-20th-in-win-as-canadiens-hand-maple-leafs-eighth-straight-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/529301\/","title":{"rendered":"Kapanen scores 20th in win as Canadiens hand Maple Leafs eighth straight loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

MONTREAL \u2014 Oliver Kapanen<\/a> scored his 20th of the season as the Montreal Canadiens<\/a> held on for a 3-1 win and handed the Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> their eighth consecutive loss on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

Phillip Danault<\/a> also scored, while Jake Evans<\/a> added an empty-net goal for Montreal (35-18-10). Jakub Dobes<\/a> made 17 saves.<\/p>\n

William Nylander<\/a> replied for struggling Toronto (27-27-11), which is on track to miss the playoffs after nine consecutive trips to the post-season.<\/p>\n

Joseph Woll<\/a> stopped 30 shots in a solid outing.<\/p>\n

The Maple Leafs fell 13 points outside the playoffs and 15 behind the Canadiens, who jumped to third in the Atlantic Division.<\/p>\n

Kapanen opened the scoring 4:46 into the first period, finishing a slick passing play with Ivan Demidov<\/a> and Alex Newhook<\/a> with a deke from the goal line. Demidov held off two Maple Leafs in the corner before sending the puck to Newhook, who fed Kapanen down low.<\/p>\n

Danault then capitalized on a fortuitous bounce to put the Canadiens up 2-0 at 14:41 as Kaiden Guhle<\/a>\u2019s dump-in ricocheted off the glass and rolled in front of the Maple Leafs\u2019 net, gifting the veteran centre his fifth of the season.<\/p>\n

Nylander buried his 22nd from a give-and-go with Easton Cowan<\/a>, putting Toronto on the board at 14:33 in the second after Dobes\u2019 flurry of saves kept it a two-goal game with the Leafs pressing.<\/p>\n

TAKEAWAYS<\/p>\n

Canadiens: Besides two shifts on the power play, Cole Caufield<\/a> sat at the end of the Canadiens\u2019 bench from late in the second period through the end of the game. Montreal\u2019s leading goal scorer appeared to be in some discomfort, with trainers occasionally checking in. The Canadiens said Caufield was sick after the game.<\/p>\n

Maple Leafs: The Canadiens dominated play early, toying with the Leafs in the offensive zone to lead the game 2-0 \u2014 and the shot count 15-8 \u2014 after 20 minutes. Toronto pushed back in the second period with Nylander cutting into the lead after Montreal missed several opportunities to pile on, but Montreal hung on in the third.<\/p>\n

KEY MOMENT<\/p>\n

Late in the first period, veteran Canadiens winger Brendan Gallagher<\/a>, after he interfered with Cowan, fought Leafs defenceman Jake McCabe<\/a> as the building erupted.<\/p>\n

KEY STAT<\/p>\n

Toronto captain Auston Matthews<\/a> \u2014 a former 69-goal scorer \u2014 extended his goalless streak to 12 games.<\/p>\n

UP NEXT<\/p>\n

Maple Leafs: Host the Anaheim Ducks<\/a> on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Canadiens: Visit the Ottawa Senators<\/a> on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 10, 2026.<\/p>\n

Daniel Rainbird, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MONTREAL \u2014 Oliver Kapanen scored his 20th of the season as the Montreal Canadiens held on for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":529302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-529301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529301","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=529301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/529302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}