Mike Matheson gives the Canadiens the win in overtime

Dose
Crédit:

After having disposed of the Sabres in Buffalo on Saturday evening, the Canadiens were back home tonight. The opponent of the day: the Sabres.

For the occasion, the CH formation remained intact… except for the identity of the starting goalkeeper.

Samuel Montembeault took his place in front of the net.

On the Sabres side, it was James Reimer who was in front of the net.

Here is the formation of the visitors:

Like in the last game, it was intense between the two teams. The Sabres were a bit more undisciplined, and that led to a numerical advantage for the Canadiens.

And Cole Caufield made the Sabres pay by scoring his 30th goal of the season.

Shortly after, it was the Canadiens’ turn to take a penalty…

But once again, it was the CH who scored. After being involved in Caufield’s goal, Nick Suzuki doubled the lead.

Then, again shortly after, the Tricolore returned to a numerical advantage, and again, they scored. This time, it was Juraj Slafkovský who scored.

Suzuki earned his third point of the period on the sequence.

After 20 minutes, the score was 3-0 for the Canadiens.

In the second period, we had a lot less offense. In fact, it took until the very end of the period to see a goal.

It was Alex Tuch who scored, unlocking the counter for the Sabres.

After 40 minutes, the score was 3-1 in favor of the CH.

The Canadiens had to contain the Sabres’ enthusiasm in the third period… and it started badly.

Tage Thompson brought the two teams back to within one goal.

The CH continued to be completely lifeless in the third period… and what was bound to happen happened: the Sabres tied the game.

After taking three bad penalties in the game, Rasmus Dahlin brought everyone back to square one.

After 60 minutes, the score was 3-3. We therefore needed overtime.

That being said, at 3 against 3, the Canadiens avoided the catastrophe: Mike Matheson gave the win to the team.

It’s a fifth straight win for the CH.

Final score: 4-3 Montréal (OT)

The Canadiens will resume play on Thursday evening, when they will face the Oilers in Edmonton. The game will start at 9 PM.

Overtime

– Tonight’s win over the Sabres sends a clear message to Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton. The team is in the mix as the managers had hoped before the season, they have just won five games in a row and players like Nick Suzuki and Alexandre Carrier have sent a clear message that they don’t want the team to sell. What kind of message would it send to the players to be a seller by Friday?

– Nick Suzuki, freshly named 3rd star of the week in the NHL, now has 64 points in 61 games this season, heading towards a point-per-game season. He has scored 12 points in five games since the resumption of activities. Clearly, the two-week break did him good. Thanks to the team’s managers for not selecting him, hehe.

– Lane Hutson now has 50 points in his career, and this in just 63 games. Only 10 defensemen in NHL history have reached this plateau in fewer games than the CH defenseman. Wow!

– After a strong first period, the Canadiens completely collapsed in this game. The Sabres finished the game with twice as many shots on goal as the Tricolore, who completely stopped playing after the first twenty. Lucky that the special units stood up in the first period, because at even strength, it was an awful game for the CH.

– We had a very physical game tonight… and it’s in these games that having an Arber Xhekaj in the lineup is not unpleasant. Xhekaj spent a good part of the evening chasing Jordan Greenway in response to what happened on Saturday, but Greenway never responded.