Toronto @ Montreal preview

Last Meeting ( Oct 5, 2019 ) Montreal 6, Toronto 5

The Toronto Maple Leafs hope to string together dominant performances on back-to-back nights when they visit the rival Montreal Canadiens on Saturday for an Atlantic Division battle. The Maple Leafs had recorded one win in four games before limiting San Jose, which played 24 hours earlier, to 16 shots on Friday as defenseman Morgan Rielly snapped a tie with 5:29 remaining in the third period en route to a 4-1 victory.

"We were better in the neutral zone, we played in their zone a little bit more and a lot of the times, they were just flicking pucks out because they were a little bit tired,” Toronto defenseman Jake Muzzin said during a television interview. “We knew we had to jump on them.” The teams scored a total of 41 goals as the Maple Leafs won three of their five meetings last season, with four of the contests going beyond regulation and the final two being won in a shootout by the Canadiens. Montreal had earned points in six of its first eight games of 2019-20 before dropping a 4-3 decision at Minnesota on Sunday and suffering a 4-2 setback against San Jose at home on Thursday despite owning a 37-23 advantage in shots. “Let me put it this way, did we get some chances? Absolutely,” Canadiens coach Claude Julien told reporters after the loss. “We had a lot of chances, even in the third period, but we didn’t bury them. They didn’t get that many chances, but they buried them.”

TV: 7 p.m. ET, CBC, Sportsnet One, TVA, CITY

ABOUT THE MAPLE LEAFS (6-4-2): Auston Matthews, who left Friday’s game after receiving a high hit but returned, scored his team-leading ninth goal to remain tied with Rielly for second on the team at 12 points - two behind Mitch Marner, who notched a pair of assists on Friday. Muzzin (plus-6 rating) netted his second tally against San Jose and Ilya Mikheyev scored one goal and set up another while improving to a team-best plus-9. Frederik Andersen needed to make just 15 saves on Friday, which could give him a chance to play on back-to-back nights as he is 7-3-2 with a .923 save percentage lifetime versus Montreal.

ABOUT THE CANADIENS (4-4-2): Montreal entered Friday ranked 30th in the league on the penalty kill (67.6 percent) after giving up four goals on eight short-handed opportunities over its last two contests. “Special teams have to make a difference,” captain Shea Weber told reporters. “It’s got to be a lot better. The power play has been pretty good for us this year, it’s just the way the penalty kill is going right now, we just have to figure that out.” Max Domi leads the team with 10 points (three goals, seven assists) and has notched at least one in seven straight contests while Brendan Gallagher (four goals, five assists) trails him by one.

OVERTIME

1. Canadiens G Carey Price is 24-15-4 with a .916 save percentage in 43 career games (42 starts) against the Maple Leafs.

2. Toronto came up empty on five power-play chances on Friday and is 1-for-12 with the man advantage over its last five contests.

3. Montreal RW Joel Armia (lower body) returned to the lineup Thursday after missing two games and scored his team-leading fifth goal.

PREDICTION: Canadiens 4, Maple Leafs 3