Colorado Avalanche vs Montreal Canadiens Match Player Stats On Dec 05, 2019

Gabriel Landeskog scored in his return to the lineup, Matt Calvert had a goal and an assist, and the visiting Colorado Avalanche hung on to beat the Montreal Canadiens 3-2 on Thursday night.

Ryan Graves also scored, and Pavel Francouz had 16 of his 38 saves in the third period for the Avalanche, who have won five straight and the first two of a three-game road trip.

Brendan Gallagher and Nick Cousins had goals, and Cayden Primeau stopped 32 shots for the Canadiens in his NHL debut. Montreal has just one victory in its last 10 games (1-6-3).

Landeskog and Andre Burakovsky returned from injuries to give Colorado nearly a full complement of forwards. Landeskog missed 16 games with a right leg injury, and Burakovsky missed three games with an upper-body injury.

The Avalanche took a 2-0 lead in the first period. Graves scored his fourth of the season at 6:13 crashing for a rebound after a drive by fellow defenseman Cale Makar.

Later in the period, Landeskog struck. He picked up the puck at center ice and skated into the Canadiens' zone and then around defenseman Jeff Petry before beating Primeau just inside the left post. It was Landeskog's fourth of the season.

Calvert, who returned to the lineup in Wednesday's win at Toronto, scored a short-handed goal at 8:06 of the second off a perfect saucer pass from J.T. Compher. It was the second straight night Colorado had a short-handed goal.

Gallagher made it 3-1 when he scored his 12th of the season on a rebound at 17:42 of the second period, and Cousins cut the deficit to one with a power-play goal 1:23 into the third. It was Cousins' third of the season.

Montreal pressed for the rest of the period and had several good chances to even it up but Francouz made several big saves, including one with the shaft of his stick as he was falling to the ice.

Primeau came off for an extra skater with 2:07 left, but the Avalanche survived a flurry of chances in the final seconds to get the victory. Montreal had five shots in the final few minutes but couldn't get the equalizer.

--Field Level Media