In Montreal, Kirby Dach scored with less than four minutes left in regulation on Saturday to force extra time with the New York Islanders on Saturday afternoon.
Mike Matheson scored with 21 seconds left on the extra session’s clock for a 4-3 win to the Canadiens.
“I put a great pass in his feet and made him deal with it,” Matheson said about the play that led to the winning goal. “No, that was a great pickup by him and I just tried to get into the rush. I wasn’t sure what he was going to do with it and it ended up popping out to me. I just tried to make contact with the puck.”
The Islanders had challenged the goal for the Habs’ Mike Hoffman being offsides, a video reviewed upheld the goal.
“It was extremely deflating twice, I guess,” Islanders coach Lane Lambert said.
The win ended a four-game schneid the Habs were riding.
Sam Montembeault made 27 saves in the Canadiens win.
“I was actually really happy with the effort today,” Montembeault said. “That was their fourth game after the break and that was our first, but that didn’t show. I think we played with intensity and with pace for 60 minutes. I gave up a little bit of a bad goal at the end of the second but we didn’t get down. We came back in the third, I mean, we came back twice.”
Montreal moved to 21-27-4.
The Habs took a 1-0 lead in the first period on a goal from Nick Suzuki.
The Islanders tied it, 1-1, at 15:01 of the first.
“I think we’ve got to do a better job, especially playing with the lead,” New York defenseman Noah Dobson said. “We’ve got to be smarter the way we manage pucks, closing quicker on guys. We gave them a little too much time and space to get some movement, and obviously that wasn’t good enough.”
Bo Horvat scored his third goal in as many games with the New York, in the second period to give them a 2-1 lead,
“I think we still played really well and still limited their opportunities,” Horvat said. “It’s just sometimes you’ve got to tip your hat.”
The strike came off the power play with just five seconds in the frame.
The Isles have lost two straight after having a four-game win streak snapped, and dropped to 27-23-6.
The two teams traded markers in the third period to give the Isles a 3-2 advantage.
Montreal’s Justin Barron knotted the game, 2-2, at 4:02 of the third.
“They blocked a heck of a lot of shots and their goalie made key saves at key times,” Horvat said. “It’s not like we didn’t have our looks or our opportunities. We just couldn’t find the back of the net there.”
Matt Martin pushed the Isles back into the lead, 3-2, midway through the frame.
Semyon Varlamov made 27 saves in the Islanders loss.
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