In Tempe, after trading goals with the Arizona Coyotes for a 2-2 in the second period, Mike Hoffman hit for the game-winner for the Montreal Canadiens in extra time on Monday for a 3-2 win.
“We were trying to regroup in the neutral zone and come together with speed and possession, which we did,” Hoffman said. “`Dacher’ (Kirby Dach) got it to me in the middle. I was thinking about passing it, but both our guys just kind of split and gave me the lane to shoot and I threw it on net.”
The victory ended a three-game skid for the Canadiens.
Sam Montembeault made 37 saves in the Habs win.
“He kept us in it right from the first period all the way through some crucial stages of the game,” Hoffman said. “Kept us alive and gave us a chance to win in overtime.”
Montreal improved to 15-15-2.
“We have a lot of skill players, and we talk about it too,” Montreal’s Jonathan Drouin said. “We review overtime, and I think maybe that’s something teams don’t review as much. We have a plan, we have something we want to execute and I think tonight was textbook. We didn’t let them make a change; we had fresh guys, and I think that made a difference.”
Nick Schmaltz and Matias Maccelli were the Coyotes strikers in the middle frame, each goal tied the game after the Canadiens took a lead.
“We forced a lot of turnovers and generated a lot of [offensive zone] time, we just didn’t score enough,” Coyotes defenseman Jakob Chychrun said. “It was just one of those games that’s crazy. We had all the [offensive]-zone time in the world and great looks, but they were opportunistic. They didn’t have nearly as many chances we did, but they capitalized.”
Arizona dropped to 1015-5.
“I thought we played pretty well,” Schmaltz said. “Obviously, we would have liked to end it before overtime, because in overtime anything can happen. We played well enough to get two points, but it’s a tough league to win in and sometimes you don’t get rewarded.”
Cole Caufield and Christian Dvorak struck for goals in the second period for 1-0 and 2-1 leads in the game.
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Karel Vejmelka made 23 saves in the loss.
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