Brandon Montour scored four seconds into overtime to give the Seattle Kraken a 5-4 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday night at Climate Pledge Arena.
In their final late game of the season, the Habs squandered a two-goal lead in the third period before eking out a point in overtime.
Juraj Slafkovsky had two points to reach the 100-point plateau in his career. Lane Hutson crossed the 50-point mark in his rookie campaign with a two-assist performance. Patrik Laine and Nick Suzuki also collected two points apiece.
Laine returned to the lineup after Joel Armia was a late scratch with an upper-body injury.
Montour also opened scoring at 4:54 of the first period. You’ll remember he had a hat trick against the Habs in their other meeting this season.
The Kraken hit three posts in a dominant first period, but returned to the dressing room only up a goal.
They added another at 4:47 of the second period. Eeli Tolvanen beat Jakub Dobes before he could reset from his excursion behind the net for the 2-0 lead.
Laine made his return felt in the second period. He scored a one-timer goal on the power play to put the Habs on the board.
After that, Dobes was run over by Seattle defenceman Adam Larsson, which galvanized the Habs. They scored two more goals before the end of the second to take their first lead of the night.
Laine got his second point of the period when he set up Alex Newhook for his 13th goal of the season.
Slafkovsky followed up that goal less than three minutes later with one of his own. It looked not all that dissimilar from the goal down the left side he scored against Vancouver on Tuesday. 3-2 Habs after 40 minutes.
Slafkovsky scored again in the third, although this time even he was unsure his stick was under the crossbar when he deflected a Jayden Struble point shot past Daccord. Upon review, the goal stood and the Habs took a 4-2 lead.
But it wasn’t over yet. Despite not being in the playoff hunt this season, the league’s newest team has a strong goal differential in the third period.
They pushed the game into overtime with two power play goals. Jani Nyman scored his first career goal to pull Seattle to within one.
Then with 2:12 left in regulation and David Savard in the box, Matty Beniers tied the game 4-4.
Clearly Montour wanted to go home, because off the initial draw in overtime, the defenceman rushed past Hutson, grabbed the puck and scored on the breakaway to send Seattle fans home happy. Blink and you might’ve missed it.
Thanks to the Liveblog commenters who sacrificed sleep to follow this four-game road trip out west. The Habs skated away with a 1-1-2 record, which is good enough to keep them in the playoff race. They’re just a point away from Columbus for the final wild-card spot.
Here’s what they had to say about Montreal’s inconsistent performance in Seattle. The same could be said for the entire trip.
3. “Got schooled on that play. Watch other teams try to copy it.” -Kelly Morgan
2. “What a choke job. So obvious what we were trying to do in OT face off. Seattle read it easily. This one is on the inexperienced Habs and MSL for not calling that out. If you are trying to win the faceoff and have a faceoff “specialist” out there – then why on earth do you leave the back end exposed.” -Justin Miller
1. “This could end up being a crucial point lost.” -Marc Taillefer