About Last Night: Caufield’s heroics give St. Louis first coaching win

by


Cole Caufield scored two goals in the win. Paul Byron played his 500th NHL career game and scored his first goal of the season.

Author of the article:

Erik Leijon • Special to Montreal Gazette

Publishing date:

Feb 18, 2022 • 16 minutes ago • 3 minute read • Join the conversation

Blues center Jordan Kyrou couldn't prevent Canadiens' Cole Caufield from scoring the winning overtime goal against Blues goaltender Ville Husso Thursday night at the Bell Centre.
Blues center Jordan Kyrou couldn’t prevent Canadiens’ Cole Caufield from scoring the winning overtime goal against Blues goaltender Ville Husso Thursday night at the Bell Centre. Photo by Dave Sidaway /Montreal Gazette

Cole Caufield scored with 10 seconds left in regulation and again in overtime to end his team’s 10-game losing streak with a 3-2 win over the St. Louis Blues on Thursday night at the Bell Center.

The win was Martin St. Louis’s first as interim head coach of the Habs. In his 500th career game in the NHL, forward Paul Byron scored his first goal of the season.

Let’s cut to the chase. Here’s Caufield’s first goal to tie the game and send it to overtime. It came just over a minute after the Blues took the lead off a Pavel Buchnevich goal. Chris Wideman found Caufield wide open back door with a pass from the top of the circle.

And here’s the overtime winner, from a pass by Jeff Petry. Both were streaking in and slipped behind their defenders.

Not only did Caufield score two, continuing his goal-per-game pace under the new interim coach, Petry also arguably had his best night as a Hab all season. I have played over 24 minutes and collected two assists.

Byron opened scoring at 7:13 in the first. Artturi Lehkonen came out from behind the net and found Byron alone in front. Byron’s redirect went through Ville Husso’s legs for the 1-0 lead.

It’s unfortunate Byron couldn’t celebrate this moment in front of a packed house, but at least his family was there to take it all in.

After keeping his team in it, thwarting David Perron on a two-on-one, starter Sam Montembeault couldn’t stop Robert Thomas short-handed on another odd man rush, this one kick-started by a broken stick. The first period ended 1-1.

It was a scoreless second period. Montembeault nearly inadvertently scored on his own goal after making the initial save and losing the puck behind him, but he ended up kicking it wide. Montreal was outshooting St. Louis 20-13 after two periods and drew four power plays, but couldn’t convert with the man-advantage.

The third period was as tight as the other two. Joel Armia was accidentally clipped in the face by Thomas’s skate and had to rush to the tunnel for medical attention. He didn’t play the rest of the way, but it could’ve been much worse, all things considered.

Montreal got a fifth power play when Caufield was high-sticked by Niko Mikkola, causing Blues coach Craig Berube to shout at the officials the penalty differential: five for his team to one for Montreal. The Blues received two power plays in the final eight minutes, although the vaunted St. Louis special teams unit came up empty.

But with 1:19 left in regulation, Buchnevich put his team ahead, shooting out of his shoes on a sharp angle one-timer.

The Canadiens lost against Columbus on Saturday in the dying moments, but they avoided a similar fate last night. Caufield came up large, scoring his fourth and fifth goals of the season to send St. Louis home with his first win from him as an NHL head coach.

There were many individual performances worthy of mention besides Caufield and Byron. Corey Schueneman played 21:24 on the blue line and was entrusted with ice-time in the final minutes and 3-on-3. Jake Evans went 14-for-20 on faceoffs as the de facto second line center. Last but not least, Montembeault turned aside 25 of 27 shots in the win.

The Liveblog commenters have been looking toward the future following Monday’s Tyler Toffoli trade, but were still pleased to see a solid group effort from the current-day Habs.

3. “In a game that produced the first win for Coach MSL, it is only fitting that a pair of runs should score all the goals. Way to go Paul – I’ve always said you were an underrated Hab. Also nice to see the playoff version of CC reappear.” -Michael Way

2. “Petry great game. Be careful what we wish for. He will be hard to replace. Rebuild or not rebuild. Four Clydesdales. Only one in line up tonight. And not Carey. How did we win? -Dale Risling

1. “I had this weird dream that the Habs won a game and Caulfield scored two goals.” -James Dawson

Comments

Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles. Comments may take up to an hour for moderation before appearing on the site. We ask you to keep your comments relevant and respectful. We have enabled email notifications—you will now receive an email if you receive a reply to your comment, there is an update to a comment thread you follow or if a user follows comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information and details on how to adjust your e-mail settings.


Leave a Comment