In Vancouver, the Montreal Canadiens did not give up a 2-0 lead on Monday, they surrendered a four-goal first period lead to the Canucks.
Then, they gave up a late one-goal lead, and lost, 7-6, in extra time.
Elias Pettersson made quick work of the extra session when he scored 13 seconds in for the win.
“I had a lane towards the goal and I just tried to do a long motion, beat him five-hole,” said Pettersson. “I don’t know if it was relief to score that goal or whatever, but just the overall emotion all game, to be down four and comeback, be down one again and then tie it at the end, we had a lot of emotions and I’m glad we came out on top tonight.”
Vancouver improved to 11-12-3.
“Our team is starting to believe they can, when they get down, still make a game of it,” Vancouver coach Bruce Boudreau said. “And that’s a belief that if you have, you’re never out of it.”
Spencer Martin got the start for the Canucks and yielded all four first period goals, making just five saves.
Collin Delia made 15 saves after entering the game in the first period, it was his Canucks debut.
“I honestly believed the whole time,” Delia said. “You definitely don’t draw it up like that, but there’s great parity in this League and it’s the age of offense, so there’s going to be scoring in these games.”
Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki scored in the first period to give the Habs a 2-0 lead.
Sean Monahan pushed the lead to 3-0.
The lead ballooned to 4-0 on a strike from Michael Pezzetta at 16:17.
“I guess we didn’t put it away,” Montreal forward Jake Evans said. “Maybe that fifth goal would have done it, but it’s just a weird game. … Hopefully we can learn to put that extra one in and put the nail in the coffin.”
Conor Garland scored, and Ilya Mikheyev picked up his first of two on the night in the middle frame to cut the deficit in half, 4-2.
“Our team is starting to believe they can, when they get down, still make a game of it,” Vancouver coach Bruce Boudreau said. “And that’s a belief that if you have, you’re never out of it.”
Bo Horvat continued the rally in the early third with a marker to get the Canucks within on, 4-3.
“Once we give that third one up, you kind of go on your heels a little,” Evans said.
Mikheyev tied it 4-4, with his second strike at at 5:45, and Jack Studnicka gave the Canucks the lead, 5-4, at 8:49.
“At the end of the day, I don’t care how we did it, we got it done,” Horvat said. “Obviously, it was not pretty. We made it pretty hard on ourselves, but we showed a lot of resilience tonight. It was a fun one. Monday Night Football game.”
Montreal still had enough left to rally back for a 6-5 lead when Christian Dvorak and Josh Anderson scored in the third.
“You’re up 4-0, and a 10-15 minute lapse and the lead is gone, and then we came back and lost it again,” Dvorak said. “It was a weird one and definitely hurts a little bit.”
Montreal dropped to 12-11-2.
Vancouver converted on a power play with 85 seconds left in regulation to tie it, 6-6, on a strike from Andrei Kuzmenko, his 12th of he campaign.
Sam Montembeault made 25 saves in the loss.
“All things considered, the emotional rollercoaster we went through in this game and how we managed it, I’m proud of the guys,” Montreal coach Martin St. Louis said.
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