Hidden Game: Following shaky start, Canadiens — and Jakub Dobes — recover to outscore Sabres

5 hours ago 6

Could the fourth time be the charm for these Jekyll and Hyde Canadiens?

Montreal has the opportunity Saturday night at the Bell Centre to punch its ticket to the Eastern Conference final following Thursday’s roller-coaster 6-3 victory over the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center.

Hockey goaltender stretches wide to make a save.

This will mark the fourth time in the Stanley Cup playoffs the Canadiens can eliminate, or put its foot on the throat, of an opponent on home ice — and each time they’ve failed. Montreal couldn’t dispatch Tampa Bay in Game 6 of the opening round, and failed to take 3-1 series leads against both the Lightning and Sabres.

Indeed, the Canadiens have a 2-3 post-season record at the Bell Centre, but are now 5-2 on the road. It makes no sense. But that’s both the beauty and agony of pro sports — and the oscillating ride it takes us on.

News you need (Part I): The winner of this series advances against Carolina, and the Hurricanes will have home-ice advantage. Should the Canadiens eliminate Buffalo on Saturday, the next round will begin on Tuesday. But should this series go to a seventh game on Monday, the conference final will begin next Thursday — and Montreal hockey fans might require heart massages.

Our random thought of the night: The Hurricanes, idle since May 9 after dispatching Philadelphia in four straight, likely hope the Canadiens and Sabres play a seventh game. And that game goes to triple overtime.

Hockey players gather on the ice to celebrate a goal.

News you need (Part II): The Canadiens improved to 5-0 following a loss in the playoffs. Indeed, they’ve not dropped consecutive games since March 14-15. That’s incredible.

News you need (Part III): Teams that take a 3-2 lead in a best-of-seven series advance 79.6 per cent of the time and have a record of 242-82. That includes 3-0 in this season’s opening round.

Sieve of the period: Jakub Dobes allowed three first-period goals before 11 minutes had elapsed. He was beaten on three consecutive shots — the first coming only two minutes into the game.

Sieve of the night: It seems Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen can’t string together two consecutive games. The 6-foot-5 Finnish native — the hero of Tuesday’s fourth game — was beaten on the fifth, 10th, 13th, 19th and 20th shots he faced and was benched following the second period. His save percentage was .783. Those with good memories will remember Luukkonen beat Boston in Game 1 of the opening round, only to be replaced early in the third period of the next match after allowing four goals in 40:16.

Let the record state: Sieve of the night trumps sieve of the period.

All is forgiven: Not only did Dobes blank Buffalo over the game’s final 49:45, he stopped the final 32 shots — including 20 in the third period. His save percentage was .917.

Great moments in coaching history: We all saw it. Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis looked at assistant Trevor Letowski following Buffalo’s third goal. You don’t have to be a genius — or the ghost of Toe Blake — to know they talked, albeit briefly, about replacing Dobes with Jacob Fowler. But St. Louis seems to push all the right buttons and has the pulse of his team. Dobes weathered the storm, and will be better for the experience. So will St. Louis, who admitted post-game he asked goalie coach Marco Marciano for his advice.

Momentum … schmomentum (Part I): After Cole Caufield’s first-period goal — his first at even-strength in the playoffs — tied the score, Buffalo regained the lead 1:14 later.

Strange, but true: That was Caufield’s first even-strength goal since scoring his 50th of the season on April 9.

Momentum … schmomentum (Part II): After Josh Doan provided the Sabres with a 2-1 lead, Alexandre Texier tied the game, again, a ridiculous nine seconds later.

Great moments in officiating: Josh Anderson was hooked by Mattias Samuelsson in the first period — and lost his glove on the play. And yet, it wasn’t deemed worthy of a penalty.

Save of the night: Dobes on Tage Thompson’s breakaway in the fourth minute of the second period. A goal would have given Buffalo a 4-2 lead.

Faceoff of the night: Phillip Danault beat Konsta Helenius. Six seconds later, Anderson scored.

Pass of the night (Part I): Lane Hutson to Anderson.

Hit of the night: The wonderfully named Beck Malenstyn on Arber Xhekaj in the second period. Not many players are able to rock, let alone knock, Xhekaj off his feet.

Easiest goal he’ll ever score: Jake Evans merely had to tap the puck over the goal line for the winning goal in the second period. It was Evans’s first playoff goal in 20 games.

Dope of the night: There was absolutely no reason for Thompson to cross-check Evans to the face in the second period. Ten seconds later, Nick Suzuki scored the Canadiens’ fifth goal.

News you need (Part IV): Hutson was on the ice for all but one of the Canadiens’ goals. That likely wasn’t a coincidence.

News you need (Part V): Dobes has tied Ken Dryden (1971) and Patrick Roy (1986) for the most playoff road victories by a Canadiens rookie goalie.

Quick stats: Ivan Demidov, who scored his first career playoff goal, had five shots. Kirby Dach had four shots and three hits despite playing only 9:05. The Canadiens blocked 25 shots — five by Kaiden Guhle and four each by Mike Matheson and Alexandre Carrier. Matheson played 26:18. Xhekaj played 7:16. The Canadiens won 55.9 per cent of their faceoffs while being outhit 21-19. Danault won 14 of 18 draws.

They said it: “It was an amazing feeling to score a goal,” Demidov said in Buffalo. “I can’t describe this feeling. I hope I’m going to have a couple more.”

“I thanked (St. Louis) for leaving me in the net,” Dobes said. “I’m proud of the way I bounced back.”

“(Dobes’s) save on Thompson changed the game,” St. Louis said.

“We never lost faith in Dobes,” Suzuki said.

[email protected]

Editor’s Picks

The post Hidden Game: Following shaky start, Canadiens — and Jakub Dobes — recover to outscore Sabres appeared first on Montreal Gazette.

*** Disclaimer: This Article is auto-aggregated by a Rss Api Program and has not been created or edited by Bdtype.

(Note: This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News Rss Api. News.bdtype.com Staff may not have modified or edited the content body.

Please visit the Source Website that deserves the credit and responsibility for creating this content.)

Watch Live | Source Article