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Canadiens sweep split-squad preseason games against Toronto

The Canadiens opened their preseason with a 4–3 overtime win in Montréal and a 4–1 victory in Toronto.

Ice hockey players warming up on a rink in an arena
Illustrative photo: Klim Musalimov / Unsplash, Unsplash License. Does not depict the reported games; cropped and resized.

The Montreal Canadiens opened their 2026 preseason by sweeping both halves of a split-squad doubleheader against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday, winning 4–3 in overtime at the Bell Centre and 4–1 in Toronto.

Cole Caufield scored the overtime winner in Montréal. Juraj Slafkovsky, Ivan Demidov and Lane Hutson also scored for the Canadiens in the home game.

At Scotiabank Arena, Phil Danault scored twice, while Maksymilian Szuber and Samuel Poulin supplied Montréal’s other goals. The Canadiens said their goaltenders combined for 42 saves across the two games.

Both results are preseason games and do not count in the regular-season standings. Montréal’s next exhibition game is scheduled for Monday, September 21, against the Ottawa Senators in Trois-Rivières. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. as part of the Kraft Hockeyville programme.

Source: Montreal Canadiens game recap, published September 20, 2026.

Illustrative photo: Klim Musalimov / Unsplash, under the Unsplash License. The image does not depict the reported games. Cropped and resized.

AI-assisted news brief. Sources are linked above.

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