CAR@MTL: About Saturday night...

MONTREAL - Here are a few key storylines from Saturday night's 4-3 overtime win over the Carolina Hurricanes at the Bell Centre.

Top marks for the top line
Tomas Tatar, Phillip Danault, and Brendan Gallagher played an important part in getting the Habs ahead to a 3-0 lead in the first 25 minutes of the game, working together for a magnificent tic-tac-toe that ended with Danault putting the Habs ahead 1-0 before the game was three minutes old.
The trio combined for seven points on the night and each of them reached some important milestones against Carolina.
Tatar recorded three assists, helping him set a new career high with his 59th, 60th, and 61st points of the season.
Danault's marker was his 13th of the campaign, which matched the personal best he set in 2016-17 in Montreal.

Gallagher earned a helper on Danault's tally and scored the Canadiens' third goal of the evening. He moved ahead of Mark Napier (57th in assists) and Gilles Tremblay (41st in points) in the Canadiens' record books, and tied Bobby Smith for 30th all-time in goals with his 172nd career marker.

Head coach Claude Julien was pleased with the work his first line did against Carolina.
"That line continues to do a good job. They're successful against the best opposing lines, because they spend most of the time in the offensive zone," outlined the Habs bench boss. "They work hard on the forecheck and they reply well defensively. It's the best way to neutralize the other teams' best lines."
Playing with the lead
The Habs got off to a roaring start, pressing early in the lead-up to the Danault goal and adding two more in quick succession before the five-minute mark of the second period.
But their inability to hold onto the lead plagued them once again on Saturday, and Carolina crept back into the contest and made it a 3-2 game early in the final frame before Justin Williams scored the equalizer with 77 seconds to go in regulation.
Still, the Canadiens were pleased with their effort and thought they had taken some strides in their quest to seal the deal.
"I thought we did a better job tonight. We were aggressive but at the same time, two pucks still ended up in the back of our net," acknowledged Gallagher, who has 21 goals and 20 assists in 2019-20. "We need to take something from it, because I liked the style we played; we didn't stop our forecheck, but when we get a two-goal lead, or a three-goal lead, it needs to be locked down."

Jeff Petry, who scored in overtime - his third game-winner of the season - felt like his squad fared well against a Carolina team doing its utmost to claw its way back into playoff position, but admitted there's still work to be done.

"I thought we had two really good periods. We came into the third and we say we have to have that killer instinct, that mentality. I thought we did a good job in the third, but they were desperate," shared Petry, who reached double-digits in goals for the third time in his career. "They were throwing pucks at the net and were able to get that second one from that point shot with the screen and the high tip. We have to just find a way to close these things out without giving up goals late."

Admirable effort from Charlie
Making his first start since February 4 in New Jersey, Charlie Lindgren played a strong game in the Montreal crease against Carolina. And though at least one of the goals he allowed may have seemed like it should've been an easy one to stop, Julien noted that the Canes did not make things easy for the American netminder.
"The other team did a good job. The Hurricanes score a lot of goals with several players in front of the net. They have defensemen who have good shots. I thought Charlie played well," praised the coach. "He had a lot of traffic in front of the net, but he made some big saves, especially towards the end of regulation."

Lindgren certainly bounced back after Joel Edmundson scored Carolina's second goal of the night from the blue line, making several key saves against the likes of Vincent Trocheck and Sebastian Aho. And even after Williams' equalizer, Lindgren made a killer glove save on Andrei Svechnikov from in close to help send the game to extra time.
"You just have to forget about it. I think they had a couple floaters from the point that just found a way in and I just wasn't able to see it," recounted Lindgren, who made 27 saves. "When that happens, part of being a goalie is to just forget about it and move on, and that's what I tried to do."

The Canadiens have the day off on Sunday. They're back at the Bell Sports Complex for practice on Monday before departing for their three-game road trip starting on Tuesday night against the Islanders in Brooklyn.