Khaira keys Oilers offensive outburst vs. Canadiens
MONTREAL -- Jujhar Khaira scored two goals and Laurent Brossoit made 22 saves to help the Edmonton Oilers to a 6-2 win against the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Saturday.
Michael Cammalleri, Milan Lucic, Oscar Klefbom and Yohann Auvito also scored for the Oilers (12-15-2), who won for the fifth time in eight games (5-3-0). They were dressed down by coach Todd McLellan at practice Thursday, the morning after a 4-2 loss at home to the Philadelphia Flyers.
Edmonton captain Connor McDavid had two assists.
Alex Galchenyuk and Phillip Danault scored for the Canadiens (13-14-4), who have dropped three in a row (0-2-1) following a five-game winning streak.
Carey Price allowed four goals on 14 shots and was replaced by Antti Niemi at 2:24 of the second period. Niemi allowed two goals on 26 shots.
Khaira, a 23-year-old native of Surrey, B.C., has three goals and two assists in four games since he was a healthy scratch in two straight games. Last season he became the third player of Punjabi Indian descent to score a goal, joining Robin Bawa and Manny Malhotra.
After Cammalleri gave the Oilers a 1-0 lead at 7:46 of the first period, Khaira scored at 11:37 of the first period and at 1:11 of the second period to give the Oilers a 3-0 lead.
On both goals, Khaira reacted quicker to loose pucks than Price. On the first goal, Price's clearing attempt behind the net was knocked down by Ryan Strome and Khaira tucked the puck into the open net.
On Khaira's second goal, he got a carom off the end boards and put it into the open side.
Cammalleri has had a hot hand against his former team. Three of his four goals have been against the Canadiens, with whom he played from 2009-12. He had two goals and two assists against the Canadiens Oct. 18 while playing for the Los Angeles Kings. The Oilers acquired him from the Kings for Jussi Jokinen Nov. 14.
Lucic's goal at 2:24 of the second on the power play ended an 0-for-16 slump for the Oilers.
NOTES: Edmonton D Brandon Davidson, picked up from the Canadiens on waivers on Sunday, played his first game for the Oilers. ... Injured for the Oilers are G Cam Talbot (upper body), D Andrej Sekera (knee) and D Adam Larsson (upper body). ... Montreal D Victor Mete, 19, was scratched for the second game in a row, the first time that has happened this season. He has been scratched for three of the Canadiens past six games. He is a candidate to be sent to play for Canada at the World Junior Championship in Buffalo from Dec. 26-Jan. 5. ... Montreal C Jonathan Drouin returned to the lineup after missing four games because of a lower-body injury and illness. ... Also injured for the Canadiens were RW Ales Hemsky (concussion), LW Artturi Lehkonen (lower body), G Al Montoya (concussion) and RW Nikita Scherbak (knee).