Ottawa Senators vs Montreal Canadiens Game Recap

MONTREAL -- Alex Newhook scored on a breakaway 1:40 into overtime to give the Montreal Canadiens a 4-3 win against the Ottawa Senators at Bell Centre on Saturday.

Newhook scored the winner after Ivan Demidov tied it 3-3 with 2:23 left in the third period on a one-timer from the slot for the Canadiens, who blew a 2-0 lead.

“We stay in it, regardless of the situation, and I think we showed that again tonight,” Newhook said.

Cole Caufield had a goal and an assist and Juraj Slafkovsky scored a power-play goal for the third straight game for Montreal (9-3-0), which has won three in a row and five of six. Sam Montembeault made 14 saves.

The Canadiens lead the NHL with five overtime wins, the most in League history through the first 12 games of the season.

“We had chances to lead by more than 2-0,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. “And it seems like it’s been that way since the beginning of the season. It’s not for a lack of opportunities that we haven’t been able to pull away more but it’s not an easy league, and you have to keep going and that’s what we did.”

Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki had two assists to extend his point streak to 11 games. He has 18 points (two goals, 16 assists) during the streak, the longest in the NHL this season, since not getting a point in Montreal’s season opener Oct. 8.

“It was just a great battle right to the end,” Suzuki said. “And it felt like we had pretty good control of the game overall and we just weren’t winning the game, like ‘Marty’ always says. We just stayed patient and got a big goal by ‘Demi’ and a huge OT goal by ‘Newie’.”

Drake Batherson had a goal and an assist, and Michael Amadio and Tim Stutzle scored for Ottawa (6-5-2), which had won four of five. Linus Ullmark made 23 saves.

“It’s tough going down 2-0 and their barn’s rocking but we weathered the storm,” Senators defenseman Jake Sanderson said. “And we had a great pushback and a great goal late in the game. We’ll take the point for sure.”

Caufield made it 1-0 at 7:05 of the first period, putting a shot between Ullmark’s pads on a breakaway. He has five goals in his past four games.

Slafkovsky put Montreal up 2-0 at 9:25 on the power play when he finished off a sharp passing play. Slafkovsky has scored four of his five goals on the man-advantage.

Batherson cut it to 2-1 at 11:53 of the second period. After Fabian Zetterlund drove to the net with the puck from the left corner, Batherson trailed and slapped in the loose puck from a tight angle along the goal line right after Canadiens forward Zack Bolduc shot wide to the right of the net on a breakaway.

Ullmark made a right pad save on Montreal defenseman Lane Hutson’s penalty shot at 17:34 of the second.

Amadio got credit for tying it 2-2 with 11 seconds remaining in the second. The goal was initially waved off for goalie interference after a rebound of Amadio’s shot went in off Montreal defenseman Mike Matheson, but Senators coach Travis Green successfully challenged that Ottawa forward Claude Giroux did not interfere with Montembeault on the play.

“I didn’t really see what was going on behind me there with ‘G’ but we got a lucky bounce off (Matheson’s) skate and fortunately they turned the call,” Amadio said.

Stutzle put Ottawa up 3-2 at 12:27 with a backhand past Montembeault.

“It doesn’t matter if you get down two, it doesn’t matter if you get down three, we push back every single game,” Stutzle said. “And obviously it helps if you’ve got the lead, but we haven’t been doing that and I think we just have to come out maybe a little harder.”

NOTES: Batherson has 11 points (five goals, six assists) during a five-game point streak. … Demidov got his 10th point (three goals, seven assists) in his 12th game. He is the fastest Canadiens rookie to reach 10 points since Stephan Lebeau did it in 11 games in 1989-90. … It was the third time Montreal won after scoring the game-tying goal within the final three minutes of regulation, tying the single season high in such wins set in 2009-10 and 2019-20.