Duchene Tallies Hat Trick as Preds Fall in Montreal

Matt Duchene notched a hat trick in the third period, but the Nashville Predators fell to the Montreal Canadiens by a 6-3 final on Saturday night at the Bell Centre. The result moves the Preds to a 9-7-1 mark as they complete a stretch of eight out of nine games on the road to start the month of November.
Nashville outshot Montreal by a 15-9 mark through the opening 20 minutes, but the Canadiens had the 1-0 lead courtesy of Artturi Lehkonen. Then, the Canadiens scored four more times in the first 10:08 of the second stanza as Christian Dvorak, Brendan Gallagher and Ryan Poehling - twice - beat Juuse Saros.

"I thought we had a good first period, and we didn't get rewarded for some of the play that we had," Preds Head Coach John Hynes said. "I thought we had the better of the play and we were the better team in the first. I thought early in the second we turned some pucks over when we were actually on the attack in the offensive zone, they scored some goals and then they got some tips and some backdoor goals. They got the power-play goal and kind of got away from us a little bit early there. So, the second period hurt us."

"We started well, actually," Preds Captain Roman Josi said. "I thought we had a good start, some pressure, some good chances, but in the second period they were a lot better than us, and then obviously scored four goals in the second… They kind of out-battled us, they made plays and had a couple of 2-on-1s, a couple odd-man rushes. Our goalies actually made some really good saves too… just not a good period by us."

That stretch spelled the end of the night for Saros as David Rittich took over in net for the Preds, and then Nashville made it interesting in the final frame.
Duchene's first two goals of the night both came on the power play, and the forward earned the natural hat trick with just 3:33 to play in regulation to pull the Preds within two to complete the fourth-fastest hat trick in franchise history. However, Montreal iced the evening with a tally into the empty net as Nashville saw their comeback hopes dashed.

Even with the result, the Preds' third period was a bright spot on the night, and as they head back to Nashville for a three-game homestand, that leaves the club with something to build upon.
"We came in after the second, and our message was to just forget about the score and just play the way we know we can play, and obviously you never know. But our main goal was to forget about score, play better as a team, play the way we have to play, especially going forward for the big homestand," Josi said. "I think it shows a lot of character. I think [in a] 5-0 game, it's easy to just go out there and kind of just play, and I think we had a good attitude. We tried to stay positive, we knew we could play a lot better, obviously, but we told ourselves, 'Let's just go play our style, go play our game, and see what happens.'"
"I just think we've got to reset here and we've got to make sure that we're coming back to the rink on Monday ready to learn from the experience of what it is, these last two games," Hynes said. "We've got to elevate our play in certain areas, and that'll be our focus in getting ready for Anaheim."

Notes:

Forward Matt Duchene earned his first hat trick of the season and his first with the Preds. It is the fourth-fastest hat trick (9:51) in franchise history behind Rocco Grimaldi (2:34 on March 25, 2021), Steve Sullivan (5:56 on Dec. 14, 2006) and Filip Forsberg (8:37 on Feb. 21, 2017).
Prior to Saturday's game, the Predators reassigned forward Cole Smith to Milwaukee and activated forward Nick Cousins from Injured Reserve. Cousins, as well as defenseman Alexandre Carrier, both returned from injury and played against the Canadiens.
Nashville scratched defensemen Ben Harpur and Philippe Myers, as well as forward Tommy Novak, on Saturday night.
With their latest road trip now complete, the Predators will head back to Nashville to begin a three-game homestand on Monday night when they host the Anaheim Ducks at Bridgestone Arena.