MONTREAL – Mason Toye scored his second goal of the game in the 47th minute, ultimately giving Minnesota United FC a 3-2 victory over the Montreal Impact at Stade Saputo on Saturday night.
The Loons managed their first win in five MLS road games since April 6 despite the absence of Ike Opara, Ozzie Alonso and Darwin Quintero, who were rested and did not make the trip.
"I did say to the players before the game that I wanted to be talking about their performance and not having to reflect on leaving people behind and making seven changes," coach Adrian Heath said. "The bottom line is, we had to do it. We played Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday, Wednesday, and we've got another big week coming up."
Minnesota, which hosts a U.S. Open Cup quarterfinal against New Mexico United on Wednesday, has scored 13 goals during a three-game MLS winning streak, and 20 goals while winning five consecutive overall, including consecutive Open Cup victories.
Making his first start, Toye scored Minnesota's first goal on the road since April 19, nine minutes in, to tie the score at 1-1.
Ethan Finlay drew the Loons even for the second time in the first half when he scored on a penalty kick in added time to make it 2-2. Lawrence Olum's pass up the middle sent Finlay in alone on Impact goalkeeper Evan Bush, who was called for taking him down in the box after he got a foot on the shot.
"It was absolutely end-to-end," Finlay said. "And anybody will tell you, when you can score a goal, or you get scored against, it's a game-changer going into the halftime. And to come in level at 2-2 we felt really good about where we were at, and we knew we were going to continue to get chances and we talked about it at halftime."
Toye completed his first MLS brace with his third goal in four games to give the Loons their first lead. He was replaced by Angelo Rodriguez in the 82nd minute.
