A winning goal scored in overtime will always bring a lot of joy to its author. The one that Justin Barron scored on Monday evening had a character that was truly out of the ordinary.
The Montreal Canadiens defenseman rattled the strings during a power play at 1:09 of the overtime period and the Habs defeated the Winnipeg Jets by a score of 3-2 in the Manitoba capital.
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.
This goal from Barron, his sixth of the campaign, came before the eyes of his parents, seated in the stands of the Canada Life Centre, but also of his brother Morgan, who was on the ice at the same time.
“It’s funny how chance can do things. (Adam) Lowry is penalized, my brother is sent to the ice. ‘Mats’ (Mike Matheson) is penalized, I am sent to the ice. It’s pretty special,” said the hero of the match.
In the victory, Josh Anderson scored a goal, his fourth of the season, and assisted on that of Christian Dvorak (3rd), also scored on the power play.
The Canadian got 26 shots against Hellebuyck and brilliantly started his long streak of seven games away from the Bell Centre.
Goaltender Jake Allen stopped 30 shots and ended a seven-game losing streak. His last victory dates back to October 28, against the Jets at the Bell Center, in a shootout.
He was particularly solid in the third period during which he faced 15 shots.
Gabriel Vilardi and Cole Perfetti scored the Jets’ goals.
“Tonight, Jake played a great game. We took two penalties, our numerical advantage gave us two goals. That’s a bit of the difference,” analyzed head coach Martin St-Louis.
“We didn’t generate many chances offensively, but we didn’t give many away on the other side either. It’s positive,” he added.
The Habs will continue this first segment of their long absence from the Bell Center by visiting the Minnesota Wild on Thursday evening.
Two cautious teams
Adequate during a first period where both clubs played cautiously, the Canadian players were downright good for much of the middle period. Their work allowed them to return to the locker room with a one-goal lead after 40 minutes of play.
Anderson first scored a third goal in his last two games at 4:57 of the second period.
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 Matheson shot.
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.
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.
“I wasn’t worried about the first goal. I didn’t really move. The puck just hit my skate without me making a move,” Anderson remarked.
“On the second goal, everything happened very quickly. You feel like the puck is touching your stick, but you don’t know if it’s someone who touched your stick or if it’s the puck,” Anderson said.
The Canadian experienced his only failure of the period during the last two minutes of the engagement, and it proved costly.
Sustained pressure from the Jets paid off at 19:04 when Vilardi was able to grab a loose puck that he slipped behind Allen, who had just blocked a Josh Morrissey shot.
This goal seemed to whip the Jets, who completely dominated the third period.
Allen finally faltered when Perfetti capitalized on Vladislav Namestnikov’s return of a long shot with just over seven minutes remaining in regulation.
“It’s not always going to be perfect, but you have to find different ways to win games,” Allen recalled.
“ [Les Jets] had the momentum for the first 12 or 13 minutes of the third period, and they scored a goal. But we continued to stick to our game plan. We didn’t create many chances on offense in the third period but we had good possession of the puck, which led to a penalty and, ultimately, a very nice goal on the power play,” Allen also underlined.