Cruising Canadiens reignite age-old rivalry with Maple Leafs

The Montreal Canadiens return home following a successful two-game road trip to face their historic rival, the Toronto Maple Leafs, on Saturday night.

The Canadiens enter Saturday's contest with points in six straight games (5-0-1) after defeating the Dallas Stars 3-1 on Thursday.

Juraj Slafkovsky, Alex Newhook and Joel Armia all scored in the victory and rookie goaltender Jakub Dobes made 32 saves to record his fourth career victory in as many games.

Another newcomer continued his torrid stretch as defenseman Lane Hutson picked up an assist on Newhook's goal to extend his point streak to six games (one goal, nine assists).

Entering Friday, Hutson led all rookies with 36 points (three goals, 33 assists) through 44 games.

"I think we have a big buy-in, more than just what is good for (individuals). It becomes contagious, and when you have that mindset as a group, it's kind of a pack mentality," Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said following the victory.

"You're harder to play against, and we're seeing that."

The Canadiens are 11-2-1 over their past 14 games and have allowed four or more goals just twice over their last 10 games, after allowing four or more in 17 of their first 34 games to start the season.

The Maple Leafs picked up an important 4-3 overtime victory over the visiting New Jersey Devils in their most recent outing on Thursday.

William Nylander scored his second goal of the game 1:10 into overtime to secure the win.

"I think we gained our momentum," Nylander said. "We had a lot of hard work and that started paying off, started getting more high-quality scoring chances so just try to build off that."

Nylander went on to talk about the stretch pass that was given to him by Mitch Marner prior to the overtime winner.

"I just saw an opening and he just put it right there and I was able to walk in," he said.

Nylander leads Toronto with 26 goals, despite only tallying one in 11 games prior to Thursday's double.

Auston Matthews, the third in the Leafs' group of superstars, also netted a pair of goals.

Marner totaled two assists in the victory, as did Jake McCabe. Thursday was McCabe's first game back after missing the previous four games with an upper-body injury.

Thursday's game was the Maple Leafs' first without forward John Tavares, who is considered week-to-week after suffering a lower-body injury during Wednesday's practice.

The Maple Leafs had lost each of their previous three games in regulation before taking down the Devils.

Toronto should continue to rely heavily on goaltender Joseph Woll. The 26-year-old has started seven of the Leafs' last nine games, with running mate Anthony Stolarz sidelined after undergoing a procedure in his knee back in December.

Meanwhile, Dobes and Samuel Montembeault have split the net in each of the Canadiens' past six games.

The Maple Leafs have won seven of the past 10 matchups (7-2-1) of these Original Six franchises.

--Field Level Media