WINNIPEG, Manitoba -- Thousands of ecstatic hockey fans left the MTS Centre singing "Ole, ole, ole" on Wednesday night after the Winnipeg Jets got clobbered 7-4 by the visiting Montreal Canadiens.

You read that right.

Fans of the Montreal Canadiens are a special breed -- they are intensely loyal, they travel in packs, and when Les Glorieux score a goal, they are so loud it makes one think they are at the Bell Centre in La Belle Province.

And, man, did the Canadiens fans have lots to cheer about on Wednesday, a game in which Montreal coach Michel Therrien may have inadvertently channeled his team's "Flying Frenchmen" from days of yore.

The Canadiens scored in the first minute of the first and second periods -- and in the first five minutes of the third -- and dominated the Jets in every facet of the game, despite being down six regulars due to injury.

The Habs got two goals apiece from Phillip Danault and Artturi Lehkonen and singles from Tomas Plekanac, Brian Flynn and Sven Andrighetto. Al Montoya stopped 23 shots in the Canadiens' net as the Habs outshot the Jets 30-27.

The home team replied with a pair of goals from Mark Scheifele and one each from Mathieu Perreault and Bryan Little.

The scoring was highlighted by a spectacular end-to-end snipe from Danault at 4:31 of the second period.

"I saw the space in front of me and I just took it and it ended up being a good goal," Danault said of his roof job over Michael Hutchinson's glove to put his team up 5-2, prompting several thousand Habs fans out of their seats yet again.

The 23-year-old admitted it may have been the best goal of his life.

"My first one in the AHL against Buffalo was good, too, but one coast-to-coast like that, I don't think I've (done that). Maybe junior, back in the day," he said.

Montoya, who played two years for the Jets from 2012-14, was overheard telling Danault to "wheel" as he went behind his own net.

"Did I? Did I get an assist?," laughed Montoya, the only player of Cuban ancestry to ever play in the NHL. "He's a special player. I don't know if I can say 'under the radar' because of what he's been doing lately, but every single night, he's true professional. He's sleek, he's sneaky and he's got the speed and the shot."

Jets coach Paul Maurice, who already pulled Connor Hellebuyck in the first period after the starting netminder allowed three goals on seven shots, called his 30-second timeout after Danault's goal. Maurice took the unusual step of removing his glasses before laying into his troops with a profanity-laced tirade, which left him red in the face.

When asked about the message he relayed to his players, he was at a bit of a loss in his postgame remarks.

"I'm not sure I remember, to be honest with you," he said. "We were (garbage) from the start, from the drop of that first puck right to the very end.

"We aren't sweeping this one under the rug. We're going to take a good look at all of it and make sure we appreciate the value of playing in the National Hockey League and playing a game at home and the cost every NHL game demands, the willingness to pay that price."

Therrien, who has never seen a 2-1 game he didn't love, said he did not ask his players to do their best impersonations of Guy Lafleur, Jacques Lemaires and Jean Beliveau, three team legends who garnered the "Flying Frenchmen" moniker in the 1950s, '60s and '70s.

"Not really," he said with a laugh. "We want to play our game, a fast-paced game and we want to dictate right from the start and move on from our last game (a loss to Washington on Monday). On the first shift, we set the tone of the game and went from there."

For Montoya, Wednesday's victory marked the third time this season he defeated a former team. The others were the Florida Panthers and New York Islanders. It was also his first start and win in Winnipeg since leaving as a free agent.

"I just have to stop moving around so much so I don't have so many teams to beat up on," he said.

"Any night your team scores seven, you want to make sure you're on the winning side of it. It was an up-and-down kind of game. We knew they had the speed and they like to attack with four men, but I think we did a heck of a job keeping them in front of us all night."

Hutchinson stopped 19 of the 23 shots he faced.

NOTES: In the press box for the Jets are Patrik Laine (concussion) plus D Mark Stuart and LW Brandon Tanev, both of whom were healthy scratches. ... Joining them from the Canadiens were LW Chris Terry, D Zach Redmond and RW Bobby Farnham. ... The Canadiens scored five goals in 8:43 against Colorado four weeks ago, just missing their team record of 8:20, which was set on Dec. 24, 1919, against the Quebec Bulldogs. ... Last week, Canadiens LW Max Pacioretty scored his eighth career regular-season overtime goal in a game against Dallas, passing four players, including Aurele Joliat and Howie Morenz, Habs legends from nearly 100 years ago.