COLUMBUS, Ohio — Tomas Tatar and Joel Armia each scored twice, Carey Price stopped 34 shots and the Montreal Canadiens beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-1 on Friday night.
The Canadiens have won four in a row and five of the last six in trying to make a move out of the middle of the Atlantic Division.
Joonas Korpisalo had 22 saves for the Blue Jackets, who saw a four-game win streak snapped. Columbus plays the second leg of a back-to-back on Saturday before heading into their bye week and the All-Star break.
Tatar got his first goals since Dec. 28, a drought of 10 games for the Montreal winger.
Korpisalo allowed a big rebound on a slap shot by Weber and Tatar tapped it in for an easy goal for Montreal 6:44 into the game.
Tatar got behind the Columbus defence and beat Korpisalo again at 8:27 into the second period, during a stretch where the Blue Jackets were dominating but couldn’t find the back of the net.
After outplaying the Canadiens for much of the game, Columbus got on the board 5:17 into the third period when Bjorkstrand knocked one into the net amid heavy traffic in front of the net.
Armia got his first after Korpisalo had abandoned the net and was going to the bench to make way for an extra skater. He added an empty-netter with 1:12 left in the game.
NOTES: Columbus F Brandon Dubinsky was back in the lineup after missing four games with a strained oblique muscle. Anthony Duclair was a healthy scratch to make room. … Montreal F Paul Byron served the first of a three-game suspension for a charge and hit the head against Florida Panthers defenceman MacKenzie Weegar on Tuesday. Matthew Peca replaced him. … Montreal, with the league’s worst power play, was 0 for 3 with the man advantage.
UP NEXT:
Montreal: Hosts Philadelphia on Saturday.
Columbus: At Minnesota on Saturday night.
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Mitch Stacy, The Associated Press