The Montreal Canadiens remain in the playoff hunt, almost despite their best efforts to fall out of it. They won their fifth game in a row, 4-3, on Mike Matheson’s overtime goal against the Buffalo Sabres on Monday at home, the third straight game they’ve won by the skin of their teeth against teams below them in the standings… and the second straight time they’ve beaten the Sabres, after taking the first game of the home-and-home last Saturday.
The Canadiens gave up a three-goal first-period lead, with Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin scoring the tying goal with goalie James Reimer pulled and just over a minute remaining in regulation. Matheson proceeded to take the shot on a two-on-one rush with Jake Evans 1:21 into overtime, beating Reimer to earn the Habs their much-needed second point in the standings on the night.
Game Recap
It was an unexpected, dramatic ending to the game based on how things had started. Cole Caufield opened the scoring less than 10 minutes in with his 30th of the season, the first time in his career he has reached the mark.
Before five more minutes had gone by, Nick Suzuki had scored shorthanded, Matheson feeding him for the score on a separate two-on-one rush, and Juraj Slafkovsky had added an insurance power-play marker, banking a cross-crease pass attempt off Sabres defenseman Connor Clifton. By all appearances, the Habs were off to the races, but not so fast.
The Sabres took over in the second, ultimately outshooting the Canadiens 36-20 overall. Alex Tuch buried a Dylan Cozens rebound late in the frame to get the visitors on the board. Tage Thompson brought the Sabres within one early in the third with a long-range one-timer. And Dahlin, despite having earned three penalties, including an ill-advised blindside hit on Evans that resulted in the Slafkovsky goal, then played hero (for the moment), beating Habs starter Sam Montembeault with a wrister from the right face-off circle.
Despite being visibly disappointed on the play and perhaps wanting the Thompson goal back, Montembeault made 33 saves on the night. The 3-26-5 Canadiens, who also needed overtime to beat the 32nd-ranked San Jose Sharks two games ago, climbed to within one point of the wild-card, idle Detroit Red Wings with the win. They head out West to face the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday ahead of Friday’s trade deadline. The 24-29-6 Sabres host the Sharks on Tuesday in a battle of each conference’s last-place squad.
The Canadiens’ five-game win streak is their first since February 2022, soon after head coach Martin St. Louis had been hired. They nevertheless finished in last place that season to secure the right to draft Slafkovsky first overall. They drafted Lane Hutson 62nd overall that year, with the defenseman scoring two assists in the game to get to 48 points in 61 games this season and 50 points in 63 games overall. In so doing, he became the fastest Habs defenseman in history to reach the mark.
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