John Tavares scored the overtime winner as the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Montreal Canadiens 4-3 at the Bell Centre in Montreal on Saturday night.
This game had a quick start in a potential playoff preview, and there was a playoff atmosphere in the building. Montreal opened the scoring just 51 seconds in when Andrew Shaw tipped in Jeff Petry’s shot for his 12th goal of the season. Shaw returned to the Habs lineup after missing 15 games because of a neck injury. The Leafs tied it less than two minutes later when Andreas Johnsson scored on a pass from Zach Hyman. Nikita Zaitsev made it 2-1 Toronto after a shot from the point got past a screened Carey Price, who was playing in the 600th NHL game of his career.
Tomas Tatar tied it for the Habs just over a minute into the third period. Price got credited with his first assist of the season on the goal. The Anahim Lake, B.C. native has 13 career NHL assists.
Brendan Gallagher gave Montreal a 3-2 lead when he scored on the power-play 7:24 into the third, but Leafs forward William Nylander tied it just 1:11 later.
Tavares’ overtime goal came at 2:17 after the Canadiens opened the extra frame on a 4-on-3 power-play. Mitch Marner passed to Tavares, who put the puck over Price’s left shoulder to give Toronto the win.
The Habs’ power-play continues to struggle although they did score one on the man-advantage, they were just 1-for-5 on the night, as their 3-game winning streak came to an end while Toronto won its fourth game in a row.
Up Next:
TOR: The Leafs travel to New York where they’ll face the Rangers (23-23-8) in the second game of a back-to-back on Sunday night.
MTL: The Habs start a 3-game road trip on Thursday when they’ll take on the Predators (33-20-4) in Nashville.
Sources:
-All stats and info courtesy of NHL.com
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