In a battle of remodeled rivals, score one for the Montreal Canadiens.
Josh Gorges' goal with 12.8 seconds remaining in overtime gave the Canadiens a 4-3 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday night in the opener for both teams.
Gorges, whose power-play blast was tipped in by Glen Metropolit with 4:10 remaining to force overtime, picked up a juicy rebound after Vesa Toskala stopped Mike Cammalleri's close-in chance. Gorges lifted it into the net to give the Canadiens their 49th victory in 92 season-openers.
"That's a great way to start the season," Gorges said. "I don't score many goals."
The goal capped a frustrating night for the sellout crowd at the Air Canada Centre, which saw the Leafs outshoot their archrivals 46-27 only to be repeatedly denied by Carey Price."He was unbelievable," Gorges said of the third-year goaltender, who's coming off a poor second half and a disappointing playoff showing. "He held us in there when the game could have gotten out of hand."
Added Cammalleri: "Carey stood on his head. He won us the game tonight."
Toronto fell to 34-41-17 in its 92 season-openers, including 22-22-12 at home.
It was an especially tough night for former Canadien Mike Komisarek -- one of eight new Leafs -- who spent 15 minutes of his first game in blue and white in the penalty box; he was there for both of Montreal's power-play goals.
"I think we were the better team tonight, and fell short," said Komisarek, who signed a big free-agent contract with Toronto during the summer. "We didn't get two points. Next time, we find a way to win and get the two points.
The pageantry that marks every Leafs home opener quickly gave way to a frantic tempo that saw a pair of scraps before the Canadiens opened the scoring 11:05 into the game.
Komisarek was sitting out a double minor for high sticking when Brian Gionta, one of Montreal's plethora of newcomers, flashed out in front, took a pass from fellow newcomer Cammalleri and snapped the puck past Toskala at 11:05.
Alex Ponikarovsky tied it at 14:27 on the only one of Toronto's 14 first-period shots to elude Price -- who had no chance on his blast from between the circles.
The Canadiens went ahead again 6:38 into the second period on a goal by another newcomer, Travis Moen. The rugged forward tucked the puck past Toskala to give Montreal its second lead. Matt Stajan's tip of Tomas Kaberle's slapper at 10:29 during a 5-on-3 power play tied it at 2-2 after two periods.
The Leafs poured it on in the third and went ahead for the first time on another power-play goal by Stajan, who tapped in a pass from Jason Blake at 9:09.
But the Leafs, who were last in the NHL in penalty-killing last season, couldn't kill the fifth minor of the night to Komisarek and allowed the Canadiens to force OT on Metropolit's tip.
--John Kreiser, NHL
Material from wire services and team media was used in this report
