Anderson scores twice, Canadiens hold off Islanders

Anderson scored two of four goals in the second period for Montreal (13-13-4), which won for the second time in its past 10 home games (2-6-2). Sam Montembeault made 30 saves.

Brock Nelson scored twice, and Noah Dobson had three assists in the third for New York (14-8-8), which had an eight-game point streak end (6-0-2). Semyon Varlamov made 36 saves.

It was the Islanders’ second regulation loss in 16 games (9-2-5).

Joel Armia gave the Canadiens a 1-0 lead at 7:45 of the second period with a wrist shot past Varlamov’s glove from the hash marks on the left side of the slot.

Anderson made it 2-0 at 10:35. He spun around in the slot and scored on a screened shot after Justin Barron’s shot from the point hit him and fell at his feet.

Anderson pushed it to 3-0 at 19:06 when he drove to the net after taking a pass from Sean Monahan and scored with a backhand between Varlamov’s legs.

Cole Caufield stretched the lead to 4-0 just 15 seconds later at 19:21 when he snapped a shot inside the left post from the slot on a pass from Nick Suzuki after Juraj Slafkovsky forced a turnover behind the net.

Nelson made it 4-1 with a short-handed goal at 2:07 of the third. He shot between Montembeault’s pads after he was sent in on a pass by Dobson.

Nelson then cut it to 4-2 at 3:43, tapping the puck in from the right edge on pass across the crease by Dobson.

Bo Horvat made it 4-3 at 14:06, but Christian Dvorak sealed the victory for Montreal with an empty-net goal at 19:40 for the 5-3 final.