Canadiens rally late, edge Kraken in OT on Caufield's 2nd goal

MONTREAL -- Cole Caufield scored his second goal of the game at 3:25 of overtime, and the Montreal Canadiens rallied for a 5-4 win against the Seattle Kraken at Bell Centre on Tuesday.

Caufield took a drop pass from Lane Hutson, skated into the bottom of the right circle and roofed a shot over the left shoulder of Joey Daccord.

“That’s why he’s Lane. I mean, there’s really no other words,” Caufield said. “His ability to create like nobody else is pretty special, and you’ve always got to be ready when he has the puck.”

Caufield's goal came after Ivan Demidov scored his first of the season to tie it 4-4 at 17:19 of the third period. Demidov received a pass in the low slot, patiently held onto the puck as he moved to his right, and scored with a backhand into an open net shortly after a power play expired.

“It was just feeling the game. It was like this,” Demidov said. “It wasn’t my plan on this one.”

Alex Newhook and Kirby Dach also scored, and Sam Montembeault made 18 saves for the Canadiens (3-1-0), who have won three in a row.

“It wasn’t pretty, but at the end of the day we got the job done, which is huge, and now we’ve got three more in a row here,” Caufield said.

Jared McCann scored for the third straight game for the Kraken (2-0-1), who allowed two goals combined in their first two games of the season (both at home). Daccord made 17 saves.

“The effort was outstanding,” Seattle coach Lane Lambert said. “I thought we did a lot of good things; there's a lot of positives from that game. We made some mistakes, and those mistakes ended up in the back of our net tonight, whereas maybe in games one and two they didn't. Structural, systematic mistakes that we have no business making. You can't do that if you want to win hockey games consistently. We'll learn from it and we'll build off the positives. We've got to be better in a couple of different areas.”

Newhook put Montreal up 1-0 at 4:37 of the first period. Demidov drove down the right side on an odd-man rush before cutting back on Vince Dunn along the wall and sending a backdoor pass to Newhook, who chipped the puck over Daccord’s right pad at the left post.

Jaden Schwartz scored a power-play goal at 3:33 of the second period to tie it 1-1. He got position at the right post and redirected Shane Wright's cross-crease pass just under the crossbar.

Caufield gave the Canadiens a 2-1 lead at 7:12, beating Daccord short side with a wrist shot from the left circle after the puck popped out to him from the corner.

Jani Nyman tied it at 2-2 at 17:52 when Tye Kartye’s shot from the right circle deflected into the net off his left skate.

Dach put Montreal back in front 3-2 at 1:12 of the third period. Noah Dobson skated down from the right point and had his low wrist shot deflect in off Dach, who was battling McCann for position in front.

Jamie Oleksiak tied it 3-3 at 4:48 with a wrist shot that beat Montembeault’s glove through a screen.

“They’re not an easy team to play against,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. “They’re a team of veterans with some younger players that play a simple and straightforward game, a lot of shots from all over. So, they made us uncomfortable from time to time.”

McCann gave Seattle its first lead, 4-3, at 7:56. Brandon Montour's initial shot was blocked by Arber Xhekaj, but McCann quickly gathered the loose puck and scored short side from the right circle.

“We’re good. We should be confident,” McCann said. “We should take the positives out of this but learn from the bad. I know I say that a lot but that’s what we need to do moving forward. We’re not going to get too down on ourselves, we’re not going to get too high, either. Just stay even-keeled.”

NOTES: The Canadiens held a pregame tribute for Hall of Fame goaltender Ken Dryden, who died of cancer on Sept. 5 at the age of 78. Dryden won the Stanley Cup six times with Montreal during the 1970s. He also won the Vezina Trophy five times, the Conn Smythe Trophy once, and the Calder Trophy. … Caufield scored his ninth career overtime goal, tying Aurel Joliat for third in Canadiens history. Howie Morenz and Max Pacioretty each scored 10 overtime goals for Montreal. … Demidov became the sixth teenager in Canadiens history to record a point during a home opener. The 19-year-old joined Alex Galchenyuk (Oct. 1, 2013), Eric Desjardins (Oct. 8, 1988), Stephane Richer (Oct. 12, 1985), Mark Hunter (Oct. 8, 1981) and Mario Tremblay (Oct. 8, 1975).