MONTREAL (AP) Colton Sissons scored twice, Juuse Saros made 36 saves and the Nashville Predators held off the Montreal Canadiens 2-1 on Sunday night.

ā€œWeā€™re starting to understand how to win these kind of games when maybe you lose a little momentum,ā€ Predators coach Andrew Brunette. ā€œEarly in the year we probably would have caved a little bit, so I think weā€™ve been able to grow as a team here."

Captain Roman Josi assisted on both goals to help Nashville rebound from a 4-0 loss at Toronto on Saturday night.

ā€œWe needed a good response,ā€ Sissons said. ā€œI thought we had some juice at the drop of the puck tonight and played a much better game.ā€

The Predators have won 10 of 13 to improve to 15-13-0.

ā€œGoing on the third period, I really felt we understood that maybe we didnā€™t have the energy, we needed to play a certain way, but we managed the game extremely well,ā€ Brunette said.

Jake Evans scored for Montreal and Jake Allen made 30 saves. Coming off a 3-2 shootout victory in Buffalo on Saturday night, the Canadiens were 0 of 5 on the power play, while Nashville went 1 for 2.

ā€œIā€™ve really liked our starts lately, but for some reason we have a tough time sustaining that start,ā€ Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. ā€œI felt tonight, we lost momentum because our PP didnā€™t execute.ā€

Sissons opened the scoring on a power play with 8:19 left in the first period, deflecting a shot from Filip Forsberg. Sissons struck again at 7:03 of the second, with Dante Fabbroā€™s point shot bouncing off Allenā€™s pad to the unmarked Sissons at the side of the net for his ninth of the season.

Evans made it 2-1 with 35 seconds left in the second, beating Saros with a backhander.

Canadiens defenseman David Savard returned after missing 22 games because of a broken hand. Savard rejoined Mike Matheson on the Canadiensā€™ top pairing and replaced Gustav Lindstrom in the lineup. Montreal sent defenseman Mattias Norlinder to Laval of the American Hockey League to open up a roster spot.

UP NEXT

Predators: Host Philadelphia on Tuesday night.

Canadiens: Host Pittsburgh on Wednesday night.

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