In Montreal, the Canadiens’ Tomas Tatar was credited with the deciding goal in the skills competition on Saturday to defeat the Vancouver Canucks, 5-4.
It was the Habs’ first post regulation win of the season.
“It was a big roller-coaster game, so we stayed with it and it’s a big two points for sure,” Tatar said.
Carey Price made 14 saves to get the win.
“We didn’t give up many opportunities and we really paid a price for our mistakes,” Canadiens head coach Dominique Ducharme said.
Brendan Gallagher forced the game to extra time and penalties when he tied the game, 4-4, early in the third period.
Nick Suzuki got the game going when he gave the Canadiens a 1-0 lead in the first period off the power play.
Vancouver responded quickly with a goal from Jake Virtanen to tie and took a 2-1 lead on Brock Boeser‘s power-play strike.
Montreal grabbed the lead back with goals from Tatar and Joel Edmundson.
The Canucks used the clean ice of the third period to score two goals, 33 seconds apart, in the first minute of the frame.
Bo Horvat and Tyler Motte put the Canucks up, 4-3, with those two strikes.
“There are still things we’ve got to get better at, but overall I think our game’s pretty solid,” Horvat said. “We’re playing Canuck hockey right now, how we want to play. But there’s always room for improvement.”
Braden Holtby made 36 saves in the loss.
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