Caufield scores in OT, Canadiens rally past Blue Jackets

MONTREAL -- Cole Caufield scored at 4:17 of overtime, and the Montreal Canadiens rallied for a 4-3 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Bell Centre on Thursday.

Caufield took a drop pass from Nick Suzuki and scored on a wrist shot past Elvis Merzlikins from the right face-off circle for his second overtime goal in the past four games. It was the Canadiens' third consecutive goal.

Suzuki scored his first goal and had two assists, and Sam Montembeault made 33 saves for Montreal (4-2-1).

“We’re a pretty resilient group,” said Suzuki, the Canadiens captain. “We had a pretty (bad) first period and we weren’t happy about it, and I thought we responded well. It was nice to get one early in the second and just kind of build off that.”

Jack Roslovic had a goal and two assists, Emil Bemstrom scored two power-play goals, and Merzlikins made 25 saves for Columbus (3-2-2), which played its third consecutive overtime game.

“We had our chances, but it was a well-played game by both teams,” Blue Jackets coach Pascal Vincent said. “A lot of speed, lots of intensity, a physical game. I thought obviously, the penalties are something that changed the momentum.”

Roslovic gave Columbus a 1-0 lead at 2:46 of the first period when he scored from the right of the crease off a pass by Johnny Gaudreau.

Bemstrom made it 2-0 at 17:21 with his first power-play goal on a one-timer past Montembeault from the left face-off circle.

Suzuki cut it to 2-1 just 27 seconds into the second period on a wrist shot over the blocker of Merzlikins.

“I really love how we responded there with the first-shift goal,” Caufield said. “Obviously, that kind of got us going, but I thought from there we pretty much played a full 45 (minutes) after that. It was for sure a bounce-forward game.”

Bemstrom pushed it to 3-1 at 13:34 with his second power-play goal. Roslovic got his third point with a cross-crease pass to Bemstrom.

Mike Matheson started Montreal's rally when he made it 3-2 with a power-play goal at 19:43.

“I think there was a little bit of a lull somewhere in the game, maybe late in the second, early in the third,” Roslovic said. “It was kind of in the middle of it, and we were up most of the game and we just need to not sit back and think as much.”

Sean Monahan redirected a shot by Caufield on the power play to tie the game 3-3 at 7:48 of the third period.

“Those are those games that really can spark some things as a team,” Matheson said. “So hopefully, it builds a lot of momentum and confidence about the group.”

NOTES: Caufield scored his 10th career game-winning goal for Montreal and became the eighth NHL player to score six or more overtime goals before the age of 23. He trails only Monahan, Connor McDavid and Steven Stamkos. … Ivan Provorov extended his assist streak to four games, the longest run by a Blue Jackets defenseman since Seth Jones in 2020-21 (five games). … Zach Werenski had an assist on Roslovic’s goal for his 250th point with the Blue Jackets (80 goals, 170 assists) to tie R.J. Umberger for sixth in their history. … Columbus forward Dmitri Voronkov made his NHL debut and assisted on Bemstrom’s second goal. He had two shots and nine penalty minutes in 8:21.