Canadiens Lineup

Rem Pitlick – Nick Suzuki – Josh Anderson

Mike Hoffman – Kirby Dach – Evgenii Dadonov

Michael Pezzetta – Christian Dvorak -Jesse Ylonen

Alex Belzile – Harvey-Pinard

Jordan Harris – David Savard

Joel Edmundson – Justin Barron

Mike Matheson – Johnathan Kovacevic

Arber Xhekaj

Sam Montembeault – Cayden Primeau

Chris Wideman

Carey Price (knee), Paul Byron (hip), Sean Monahan (lower-body), Kaiden Guhle (lower-body), Brendan Gallagher (lower-body), Jake Allen (upper-body), Jake Evans (lower-body), Joel Armia (upper-body), Jonathan Drouin (upper-body), Juraj Slafkovsky (lower-body), Cole Caufield (shoulder)

Game Report

Just 53 seconds into this contest, Maple Leafs’ defenceman Mark Giordano opened the scoring. Habs fans let out a collection sigh. It was another softie allowed by Sam Montembeault, who had given up five second period goals to the Panthers on Thursday night before getting the hook.

With the numerous injuries, including the bombshell news about Cole Caufield, it felt like it was going to be one of those nights. 

Before the first period was out, Calle Jarnkrok made the score 2-0 on a slick pass by Conor Timmins. Toronto outshot the home squad 15-4 in the first period. Shot attempts were 32-9 for the Leafs in the opening frame.

And then the improbable happened.

The Canadiens dug deep, remembered that this was a historic rivalry, and perhaps thought about their leading goal scorer, told earlier in the day that his season was done. And they took over the game – just for one period – but completely dominated the middle frame.

Montreal answered their visitors with two second period goals by Josh Anderson and Rafael Harvey-Pinard. The Habs flipped the script, outshooting the Leafs 18-8 and they went to the dressing room for the second intermission having earned a tie.

Toronto dominated the third period but failed to finish. Shots were 14-6 for the Maple Leafs in the final 20. And the stage was set for overtime.

Rem Pitlick sent the Bell Centre faithful home happy at the end of a tumultuous day for Habs fans.

Leafs supporters should be concerned that a team decimated by injuries put together a gutsy second period and a shot in overtime to beat their playoff bound team.

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