(Winnipeg) Defenseman Justin Barron scored on a power play at 1:09 of the overtime period and the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Winnipeg Jets 3-2 Monday night in the capital Manitoba.
Barron scored with a wrist shot that beat goaltender Connor Hellebuyck in the upper right after Nikolaj Ehlers was fouled for tripping Mike Matheson with 27 seconds left in the third period.
Josh Anderson scored a goal, his fourth of the season, and had an assist on Christian Dvorak’s goal.
The Canadian got 26 shots towards Hellebuyck.
Goaltender Jake Allen stopped 30 shots and ended a seven-game losing streak. He was particularly solid in the third period during which he faced 15 shots. His last victory dates back to October 28, against the Jets at the Bell Center.
Gabriel Vilardi, late in the second period, and Cole Perfetti, in the third period, scored the Jets’ goals.
The Habs will continue this first segment of their long absence from the Bell Center by visiting the Minnesota Wild on Thursday evening.
The next day, the Canadian will be in Chicago where he will meet the talented Connor Bedard for the first time since the Montreal team’s local opening on October 14.
Two cautious teams
To use an old cliché, the Canadian played “a good road team game” during the first period, against a rival who had dominated the Los Angeles Kings and the Colorado Avalanche – two of the good teams in the NHL – in his two previous outings.
Allen and Hellebuyck were hardly busy during the first 20 minutes of play as they received six and five shots respectively.
The two goalkeepers still had help from the vertical rods, Allen on two occasions following shots from defender Dylan Samberg and Perfetti. Between these two opportunities, Mitchell Stephens also took a shot which hit the post.
Adequate in the first period, the Canadiens players were downright good for most of the middle period and they returned to the locker room with a one-goal lead.
Anderson first scored a third goal in his last two games at 4:57.
The strong Habs forward was rushing towards the opposing net when the puck hit his left skate and branched off behind Hellebuyck who had just stopped a shot from Mike Matheson.
About ten minutes later, Anderson contributed to the Canadian’s second goal during a power play, at the end of a contested sequence.
With his right hand, Anderson first recovered the disc in flight, after a save from Hellebuyck’s pad on a shot from Gallagher.
After placing the puck on the ice, it began to bounce towards Dvorak, who was stationed at the mouth of the net, to the left of the Jets goaltender. Dvorak had no difficulty placing the puck behind Hellebuyck.
PHOTO TERRENCE LEE, USA TODAY SPORTS VIA REUTERS CON
Christian Dvorak (28) is congratulated by his teammates.
The Jets requested a video replay, ruling that Anderson had not touched the puck with his stick before it reached Dvorak, and that the referees should therefore have called a stoppage in play because of a pass. with the hand.
After a review, it was determined that Anderson made contact with the puck after he placed it on the ice.
The Canadian experienced his only failure of the period during the last two minutes of the engagement, and it proved costly.
Four of the five Habs players on the ice were trapped in their zone for more than a minute, including David Savard for more than two minutes.
This sustained pressure paid off at 19:04 when Vilardi was able to grab a loose puck that he slipped behind Allen, who had just blocked a shot from Josh Morrissey.
As was to be expected, the Jets started the third period with vigor to the point of obtaining eight of the first nine shots of the period.
The 11the Jets’ shot in the third period allowed them to tie the score. Allen first blocked a long shot from Vladislav Namestnikov, but could not control the return.
Left alone to the left of the Canadian goalkeeper, Perfetti exploited this return to create the tie with a little more than seven minutes remaining in regulation time.