Guhle scores with 15 seconds left in 3rd, Canadiens edge Blackhawks

CHICAGO – Kaiden Guhle scored with 15 seconds left in the third period to give the Montreal Canadiens a 3-2 victory against the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center on Saturday.

Guhle scored the game-winner on a shot from the high slot through traffic, with teammate Juraj Slafkovsky stationed in front of the net.

“I thought ‘Slaf’ scored; I had no idea I scored,” Guhle said. “I still don’t know if I did. Nice. The 10 seconds, 20 seconds before that were crazy. They were blocking shots. I took a shot from the point. It goes in off a stick, off a body and it goes in. Pretty excited.”

Zack Bolduc scored for the third straight game and had an assist, and Nick Suzuki had three assists for the Canadiens (2-1-0). Cole Caufield also had a goal and an assist, and Sam Montembeault made 20 saves for Montreal.

The Canadiens had 10 power plays, scoring on two of them. The teams combined for 56 penalty minutes, 39 against Chicago.

“Yeah, tons of special teams,” Suzuki said. “On the power play, we can be a little more crisp and decisive with our plays. But yeah, it was kind of just a weird game for that and some chippiness and guys sticking up for each other and playing hard through it. I think we’ve got to work on the power play a lot.”

Sam Rinzel scored his first NHL goal, and Frank Nazar and Teuvo Teravainen each had two assists for the Blackhawks (0-2-1) in the home opener of their 100th anniversary season. Spencer Knight made 25 saves.

“That’s a really, really hard game to get any rhythm going,” said Chicago coach Jeff Blashill. “You have certain guys playing so many minutes. Anybody that killed [penalties] was playing so many minutes. So then you’re trying to get some of the guys who don’t kill back in their rhythm. I bet you there were some players on our team that didn’t play much 5-on-5 at all. Probably Ilya Mikheyev. He killed so much that he probably ended up not playing much 5-on-5. I’d have to look at the stat sheet again. It’s a hard game to get rhythm.”

After Montreal went 0-for-4 on the power play in the first period, Caufield scored on the man-advantage at 2:45 of the second period for a 1-0 lead. Caufield batted the puck into the net after Bolduc shot it from the left face-off circle. The goal was upheld after replay review determined Caufield’s stick was not above the crossbar.

Rinzel tied the game 1-1 at 4:32. The defenseman moved into the right circle and snapped a wrist shot over Montembeault’s right shoulder.

“It kind of feels like a weight off your shoulders,” Rinzel said of scoring his first goal in his 12th NHL game. “I had a lot of chances before this. A lot [of players] say kind of the hard part is to get the chances. I felt like I was doing the right things, and I was getting the hard parts out of the way, getting in the right spots. Yeah, to get first one feels good. Definitely gives you some confidence, for sure.”

Bolduc scored on the power play to give the Canadiens a 2-1 lead at 5:45, poking the puck into the net from just off the crease on a rebound of Caufield’s shot.

The forward has four points (three goals, one assist) in his first three games with Montreal after being traded from the St. Louis Blues on July 1.

“I love his game,” Suzuki said of Bolduc. “He’s hungry on the forecheck. He wants the puck, to make plays, shoot it. He’s been scoring some big goals for us.”

Connor Bedard tied the game 2-2 with a power-play goal at 9:15. Teravainen fed the puck to Nazar in the slot. Nazar’s shot deflected in off Bedard’s body.

NOTES: Defenseman Artyom Levshunov was a healthy scratch after playing in the Blackhawks’ first two games. … Bolduc became the first Canadiens player since Yanic Perreault in 2001-02 to score in each of his first three games with the franchise.