MONTREAL — The Montreal Canadiens will have a lot of growing pains this season retooling with a young squad.
However, the Habs found a way Monday night to please their fans by maintaining an undefeated home record through their first two NHL games.
Martin St. Louis’ side rallied in the third period to force overtime and then snatched a 3-2 win from the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Bell Centre.
“It’s huge for us,” said Nick Suzuki. “We want to be good on home ice. In the last couple of years, we haven't really done that. It's important to win at home and we want to put on a good show for our fans, so to win games, and to win games like that, it's pretty fun.”
Evgeni Malkin of Pittsburgh had a two-goal night, while Bryan Rust collected two assists. Suzuki and Cole Caufield levelled the score and forced overtime. Kirby Dach scored the game-winning goal at 3:09 on the power play.
Jeff Petry played his first game back at the Bell Centre. The defenceman took three penalties, including one in overtime that cost Pittsburgh the game.
“Obviously you don't want to take one in overtime," said Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan. “We've got to be more disciplined in those circumstances.”
Casey DeSmith made 36 saves and allowed three goals. Samuel Montembeault allowed two goals and made 26 saves for Montreal.
The Penguins were millimetres away from taking an early lead. Danton Heinen grabbed a loose puck in the left faceoff circle and shocked Montembeault with a wrist shot but a video review showed the puck hit both posts without crossing the goal line.
After a scoreless first period, the visitors finally found net. Marcus Pettersson found Malkin with a cross-ice pass and the Russian netted his second goal of the season on the one-timer.
Malkin recorded his second goal of the game four minutes later. The centre hopped on Montembeault’s rebound in the slot to give Pittsburgh a two-goal advantage.
“It's real disappointing,” Sullivan said about the loss. “We didn't like the first period at all. I thought the second period we started to play. I thought we were probably the better team in the second period, but that's the only period. It's hard to win in this league when we only play one period.”
The Canadiens cut their deficit to one early in the third period. Suzuki broke into the offensive zone and hit the post with a wrist shot but the captain rounded the net to grab his own rebound and tapped in Montreal’s first goal of the game.
With 2:26 remaining, Montreal called a timeout and pulled Montembeault. Coach St. Louis chose wisely as Jonathan Drouin found Caufield with a cross-ice pass and the sniper levelled the score with a one-timer.
St. Louis gave credit to assistant coach Alex Burrows for drafting the play that led to the equalizer.
“Alex takes care of that. We have a few things that we think about going to six-on-five,” St. Louis said. “2:23, is it early? I don't know but I feel like, a faceoff in the offensive zone, you might never get another one of those. So, call the time and get organized. And the guys delivered.”
Petry took his third penalty of the game in overtime and it proved costly for the Pens. Sean Monahan found Dach and the centre scored his first goal as a Hab to ice the game.
PETRY RETURNS
Defenceman Jeff Petry played his first game at the Bell Centre in a Penguins uniform. The 34 year-old was booed on his first touch of the puck.
During a commercial break in the first period, the Canadiens organization presented a video honouring Petry’s eight-season stint in Montreal. He received a nice ovation, only to be booed seconds later on his next shift.
ALLEN ON LEAVE
Goaltender Jake Allen missed the game as he was on parental leave with his wife due to give birth. Montembeault was told he'd be in for Allen the morning of the game.
“It wasn't too bad,” Montembeault said about preparing for the game. “It wasn’t until this morning when I showed up to the rink and I saw that his gear wasn't there, so I kind of knew at that moment that I was going to be in.”
UP NEXT
The Canadiens will play their second game of a four-game home stand on Thursday as they host the Arizona Coyotes. The Penguins will return to Pittsburgh to take on the Los Angeles King on Thursday before heading out on a five-game road trip.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2022.
Tristan D’Amours, The Canadian Press