Montreal Canadiens vs Chicago Blackhawks Box Score on Dec 22, 2023

Nick Suzuki, Juraj Slafkovsky and David Savard each had a goal and an assist as the visiting Montreal Canadiens rallied from an early two-goal deficit with five unanswered goals to defeat the Chicago Blackhawks 5-2 on Friday night.

Josh Anderson and Mitchell Stephens also scored goals for Montreal, which extended its point streak to five games (3-0-2). Cayden Primeau made 19 saves. The Canadiens were playing the second game of a back-to-back that began with a 4-3 overtime loss at Minnesota on Thursday.

Ryan Donato and Jason Dickinson scored goals for Chicago, which lost for the fifth time in its last six games. Petr Mrazek finished with 23 saves for the Blackhawks.

Chicago took a 1-0 lead at the 16:56 mark of the first period when Donato fired a wrist shot from the slot past Primeau's glove side for his sixth goal of the season.

Dickinson made it 2-0 early in the second period when he took a spinning drop-off pass from Colin Blackwell in the slot and fired a wrist shot inside the right post for his 10th goal.

Montreal cut it to 2-1 just 37 seconds later when Stephens, alone by the right post, redirected Mike Matheson's one-timer from the right point for his first goal of the season.

Anderson tied it 2-2 at the 15:02 mark of the second period when he tapped in Sean Monahan's crossing pass from the right doorstep for his fifth goal of the season and the fourth in his last four games.

Slafkovsky then gave the Canadiens their first lead of the night when he slid in a rebound of a Suzuki shot that landed in the middle of the crease.

Suzuki increased the Montreal lead to 4-2 at the 13:11 mark of the third period when he backhanded in a rebound of a Cole Caufield shot.

The Canadiens appeared to score again just 11 seconds later when Jake Evans put in a wrist shot off Mrazek's glove from the slot. But the goal was waved off when Chicago successfully challenged that Anderson was offside entering the zone.

The Backhawks pulled Mrazek for an extra attacker with 3:29 remaining and Savard sealed the win with a length-of-the-ice empty-netter with 1:56 to go.

--Field Level Media