Canadiens thump sluggish Ducks

Anaheim’s road-weary squad, outshot 34-13, simply overwhelmed in Montreal

MONTREAL — Defenceman Jeff Petry had a goal and two assists as the Montreal Canadiens downed the Anaheim Ducks 5-1 on Tuesday night.

Paul Byron had a goal and a helper while Tomas Plekanec, Max Pacioretty and Chris Terry also scored for Montreal (21-7-4).

Ironman Andrew Cogliano scored for the Ducks (17-12-5), who looked sluggish coming off a 3-2 win Monday night in Toronto. Anaheim ends its six-game road trip Thursday night in Ottawa.

Cogliano played his 738th consecutive game to pass Jay Bouwmeester for the fifth-longest streak in NHL history. It’s the longest since Steve Larmer played his 884th in a row in 1993. Cogliano has the second-longest all-time from the start of a career behind Doug Jarvis’s 964 games. Montreal outshot Anaheim 34-13. The Ducks struck first off a faceoff in the Montreal zone as Ryan Kesler kicked the puck to Cogliano for a quick shot that beat Carey Price high at 5:19. Cogliano’s ninth of the season tied his total over 82 games in 2015-16.

Montreal got it back at the 19:00 mark on a two-on-one as Byron put Jeff Petry’s rebound into an open side. Byron equalled his career high of 11 goals set last season.

Artturi Lehkonen got through traffic and fed Byron for a cross-ice pass that Plekanec buried on a power play for only his third of the season.

Ducks goalie Jonathan Bernier, now 1-9-3 in his career against Montreal, cleared the puck around the boards from behind his own net to Petry at the right point for a shot that went in off a post.

It was Petry’s seventh goal of the season and fourth in seven games. He has seven points in that span.

Montreal’s struggling power play got another at 10:04 when Petry sent Pacioretty in on the right side for a shot that beat Bernier inside the near post. It was only the third power-play goal in the Canadiens’ last 24 attempts.

Terry got his first of the season with 47 seconds left in the third period.

Defenceman Andrei Markov (upper body) sat out on his 38th birthday, ending a string of 116 games without missing one due to injury.

— THE CANADIAN PRESS Anaheim Ducks goaltender Jonathan Bernier collides with Montreal Canadiens right wing Brendan Gallagher during the first period on Tuesday in Montreal. Gallagher and the Habs outshot the Ducks 34-13 in the 5-1 blowout.