Cole Caufield scored with 43 seconds remaining in overtime, and the Montreal Canadiens rallied from two goals down to beat the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets 4-3 on Thursday night.
After recording two assists, Caufield’s shot past Columbus goaltender Elvis Merzlikins (25 saves) in the final stages of overtime helped Montreal win for the third time in four games. Caufield has four goals and five assists and has earned at least one point in six of his seven games this season.
Down 3-1, the Canadiens struck with 17 seconds remaining in the second period on the power play. With traffic in front of Merzlikins, Mike Matheson’s wrister made it a one-goal game. Then again with the man advantage, this time at 12:12 remaining in regulation, Montreal tied it when Sean Monahan deflected in Caufield’s pass — off a pass from Matheson.
Nick Suzuki also had a goal and two assists for Montreal, which got 33 saves from Sam Montembeault.
Emil Bemstrom had two power-play goals, and Jack Roslovic recorded a goal and two assists for Columbus, which is amid a 2-0-2 stretch.
Solid puck movement by the Blue Jackets led to the first goal of the game. Pushing into the Canadiens’ zone, Zach Werenski got the puck to Johnny Gaudreau, who skated behind the net, then sent it to Roslovic for a tap-in just 2:46 into the game.
Columbus outshot Montreal 14-9 during a chippy first period that featured roughly 20 combined minutes of penalties. The Blue Jackets made it 2-0 when Roslovic and Ivan Provorov set up Bemstrom to drive home a power-play, one-timer with 2:39 remaining in the first.
Montreal cut that deficit in half just 27 seconds into the second period. After a puck battle along the side boards, the puck found its way into the high slot for Suzuki, who fired a shot past Merzlikins for his first goal of the season.
Bemstrom pushed the Blue Jackets’ lead back to two goals with another power-play tally. Roslovic drew a crowd of Canadiens, then found Bemstrom to bury from the side of the net with 6:26 left in the middle frame.
–Field Level Media
