Montreal Canadiens: Finally, An Extra Time Victory!!

The Montreal Canadiens schedule is unique this season. They will only play against other Canadian teams and they will face each of them nine or ten times.

That means seeing a lot of the same teams over and over again throughout the season.

Unfortunately for the Canadiens, they headed into last night’s game knowing it would be the last time they see the Vancouver Canucks.

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It was the ninth meeting between the two teams and the Canadiens found great success in the first eight. They didn’t lose in regulation in any of those games and were 5-0-3, collecting 13 of a possible 16 points in those eight games. Needless to say, the Canadiens didn’t have that much success against anyone else this season.

The first period looked promising for the Habs as they held the Canucks without a shot for the final 15 minutes of the period. The Habs outshot the Canucks 10-2 in the first 20 minutes and led 1-0 on a Nick Suzuki power play snipe.

The tide turned pretty quick in the second period as the Canucks scored just 22 seconds into the middle frame to tie things up. The Canucks got a power play a few minutes later and Brock Boeser scored on a one-timer to give them the lead.

The Habs were undeterred and continued to carry the possession for most of the period. Finally, with 6:16 to go in the period and a delayed penalty signalled, a strong shift from Phillip Danault, Tomas Tatar and Brendan Gallagher led to a goal.

Before the end of the period, the Canadiens would take the lead as Joel Edmundson would fire a shot through traffic and beat Braden Holtby who was screened by Gallagher.

This gave the Canadiens a 3-2 lead heading into the third period, but it didn’t last long. In fact, it lasted exactly as long as their first period lead. Just 22 seconds into the third period, Bo HOrvat made a perfect tip on a point shot and it fooled Carey Price and tied the game. Just 33 seconds later, Tyler Motte ripped a wrist shot past Price to give the Canucks a 4-3 lead.

The seesaw battle continued as five minutes later, Danault would win a faceoff to Gallagher in the offensive zone and the Habs plucky winger would quickly fire it past Holtby to once again tie the game.

The game remained tied after 60 minutes and for the 10th time this season the Canadiens went to overtime. They were still looking for their first win in overtime or the shootout.

They decided to play the most boring 3 on 3 overtime in the history of 3 on 3 overtime. They had one really good chance when Jonathan Drouin danced past a pair of Canucks defenders before decking to his backhand but Holtby robbed him with the glove.

Shortly after that, Price made a huge kick save on Boeser and the five minute overtime did not decide a winner.

Corey Perry scored on the first shot of the shootout but Boeser answered for Vancouver. Drouin was stopped in the shootout and then Price stopped JT Miller. Suzuki came in slow for his attempt from wide to the left but he was stopped by Holtby on a deke. Bo Horvat made a similar motion on his attempt but Price stopped him with the shoulder. Kotkaniemi tried a backhand deke but lost the handle. Adam Gaudette then was robbed by Price as he deked to the backhand. Paul Byron was stopped. Price robbed Jimmy Vesey who pulled the puck to his backhand and elevated the puck but Price made a great glove save. Tatar then sniped when he faked a shot and pulled the puck to the backhand. Canucks youngster Nils Hoglander than fired a puck wide and the Canadiens actually won a game in extra time!

The Canadiens improved to 1-9 in overtime and the shootout!