EDM@MTL: A better outcome

MONTREAL - A power play goal, a dazzling goal from rookie Jesperi Kotkaniemi and an incredible play in overtime by Jonathan Drouin.

That pretty much sums up the Habs' Sunday afternoon win by a 4-3 score against the Edmonton Oilers.
First off, the Canadiens capitalized on an early power play to open the scoring thanks to Shea Weber, their second power play goal in their last three games.

"I find that for the past four or five games, there's been movement and shots," described the overtime hero, Drouin. "We're picking up a lot of pucks in the corners and that's allowed us to get more scoring chances."
On the other hand, the Oilers took advantage of the Canadiens' lack of discipline to score two power play goals (their first one was scored just after the power play had expired). That said, the Habs' defensive corps was able to contain Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl for the entire game at 5-on-5.
"[The Oilers scored] almost three power play goals. I thought we did a pretty good job as a team limiting them 5-on-5; I don't think they had a lot of chances. That's what you want to do as much as you can," mentioned Weber. "We thought we deserved a little bit of a better fate yesterday, but each point means so much at this point of the year. It's going to be an exciting stretch. Hopefully, this weekend started us off right. We have a game here every other night for awhile."
The turning point in the win, however, was a magnificent goal scored by Kotkaniemi with just under eight minutes left to play in regulation.

"Maybe in the second period, we let the emotions get the best of us. I thought we got a little frustrated and that was a tough period for us; we didn't spend as much time as we would've liked in the other end," recounted alternate captain Brendan Gallagher. "But I thought we came out in the third, we came in here, refocused a little bit. It didn't matter when we were going to get the goal; we knew it was going to come eventually."
The rest is history. Goaltender Carey Price made some huge saves in overtime to keep the Canadiens alive until they could bury it home.
"Carey made some important saves in overtime and allowed us to win," praised head coach Claude Julien. "Luck was on our side today, unlike yesterday."
The kid's alright
For a second straight day, Kotkaniemi's name came up in postgame comments from his teammates after the Habs' first-round pick (third overall) in 2018 scored a second goal in as many games in his young career.
It wasn't just your average goal, either.
"It was incredible. To be able to lift the puck like that on the backhand, especially when we're down with around six minutes left. You can see the past two weeks he's at another level," prescribed Drouin. "He's waiting for the puck less, now he's going out to get it. He's creating chances for himself and it's making a difference."

His head coach couldn't agree more.
"I'm going to tell you, those guys are pretty special. I'm amazed. Our scouts did a great job at finding this guy, where I don't think people had him rated so high. There's no doubt in my mind that he was drafted in the right spot. His skill level is unbelievable. He has the size and, already since the start of the year, he's really improved as far as his strength is concerned," concluded Julien. "His learning curve to the NHL game has been outstanding in my book."
The Canadiens next play on Tuesday night at the Bell Centre against the Anaheim Ducks.