Montreal Canadiens (36-20-10) forward Kirby Dach suffered an upper-body injury in his team’s 4-3 loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday at the Bell Centre.

The loss completed a weekend 0-fer for the Habs. They fell 4-2 to the San Jose Sharks on Saturday.

Dach took the worst of a hit from Jeffrey Viel early in the first period and did not return. Dach had already missed 34 games this season with two separate injuries, most notably a foot fracture that cost him 31 games.

The Canadiens did all their damage on offence in the second period when they scored three consecutive goals. With overtime looming, Cutter Gauthier buried the game-winner with 2:30 left in regulation.

Ducks forward Leo Carlsson propelled the away team to a 2-0 lead with a pair of goals on Habs starter Jacob Fowler. The second overall pick in the 2023 NHL draft had three points on the night.

The energy from the Canadiens wasn’t all that dissimilar from Saturday night’s tepid performance against the Sharks, but the Habs got a quick burst of offence and tied it up within the span of a minute. The first came from Alex Newhook, from a dandy blue-line pickoff by Lane Hutson.

That was followed by Cole Caufield becoming the first Canadiens player since Max Pacioretty in 2013-14 to score 39 goals in a season. Noah Dobson set him up with the long stretch pass.

Montreal’s third unanswered goal came just over 10 minutes later when Juraj Slafkovsky used his big body to carry the puck up the ice, flicking off U.S. Olympian Jackson LaCombe in the process, before setting up linemate Nick Suzuki for the go-ahead goal.

But the Ducks drew even before the end of the second period. Troy Terry flung a seemingly harmless backhand on Fowler, and the knuckle puck fluttered past the goalie. 3-3 after 40 minutes.

Sunday’s tilt seemed headed for overtime, like so many games this season. Fowler did what he could to preserve a point for the Habs by robbing Jansen Harkins with a glove save after Carlsson did the dirty work carrying the puck to the net.

With 2:30 to go in regulation, Viel hit Gauthier in front with a no-look pass and the Ducks forward had time and space to beat Fowler five-hole. The Habs pulled their goalie in an effort to tie it up, but the Ducks held on for the 4-3 win.

The Habs entered the game with a rotation at forward. Brendan Gallagher sat on Saturday for the first time since the beginning of his career, while Zachary Bolduc sat Sunday as Gallagher returned to the lineup and Alexandre Texier got a third straight game after seeing time in the press box. If Dach is out for any length of time, that would allow all three to stick in the lineup.

A pending restricted free agent, Dach can’t really afford any more setbacks after an injury-marred four seasons in Montreal.

Gallagher responded to being a healthy scratch by being a +1 in 13:22. Fowler took Jakub Dobes’s spot in goal and stopped 24 of 28 shots. But he flashed the glove twice with the game on the line in the dying moments of the third.

The obvious place for the Habs to improve? The power play went 0-for-7 against the Cali teams.

It was also a rough night for the defence. Hockey Stat Cards’ impact card has the top-4 seeing red, but only Mike Matheson and Kaiden Guhle ended up in the minus. The rest were even.

The Hockey Inside Out YouTube livestream will return on Tuesday for the St. Patrick’s Day spectacular between the Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins at the Bell Centre.

It was a missed opportunity for the Habs to collect up to four points over the weekend against a couple of Western Conference opponents. Their next two games will come against divisional rivals they need to fend off in the playoff race: the aforementioned Bruins and the Detroit Red Wings.

This weekend to forget will sting a little less if the Habs can snag four points in the standings Tuesday and Thursday. Right now, the Habs sit two points ahead of the Bruins and Wings, so an extended losing streak could send Montreal out of a playoff spot altogether.

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