- I guess we’re cheering for the Toronto Maple Leafs to beat the Buffalo Sabres tonight. The gap could be two points to first place at the end of the night if that happens.
First period
- Mike Matheson tries to start the game with a hit in the neutral zone, and it looked like he caught Igor Chernyshov in the face with his hands. I think Chernyshov was knocked out immediately, as he well to the ice without using his arms to brace himself. He hits his hard on the ice, and appears to have sustained a concussion on the play. A tough opening shift for the rookie.
- Alexandre Texier drives to the net and the puck spills off Alex Nedeljkovic to his left. Lane Hutson gets onto it and fires it in, but the referee blows the whistle thinking it was frozen. The Habs celebrate their perfectly legitimate goal, and the refs get together and decide that is is a goal, but I don’t know how you go back and say it can count if the puck was shot after the whistle went. It should be a goal, but it can’t be.
- After the review, the referee sheepishly turns on his mic to announce to the Bell Centre crowd that the goal won’t stand.
- The play is a little sloppier in Montreal’s end than it was the last two games. They’ve let up from their play versus two divisional opponents earlier this week.
- Demidov is back on the ice.
- Hutson goes on an end-to-end rush trying to get back the goal that was denied him.
- Texier clearly understands that he’s in the game in stead of Brendan Gallagher, and is doing well to replicate that high-energy style on the fourth line. That trio has been the best one so far.
- Demidov has left and come back. He’s clearly feeling something he’s not happy with.
- Juraj Slafkovský strips the puck away from Macklin Celebrini, and that opens up the whole left side fo the ice for Cole Caufield, he builds up speed on his path to the net, and sends the puck far-side for the first Habs goal that goes up on the scoreboard.
Mr. Saturday night strikes again. 1-0 #Habs
— Matt Drake (@drakemt.bsky.social) March 14, 2026 at 8:38 PM
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- Hutson tries probably a little too hard to create more offence and has the puck turned over at the blue line. He races back to force Kiefer Sherwood to a backhand shot, but it still goes off the post behind Jakub Dobeš.
- Jake Evans beats Vincent Desharnais to puck bouncing toward Nedeljkovic and turns it into a scoring chance. Desharnais seeks retribution for getting fooled, and ends up in the box for his troubles.
- No goal on the power play, but it looked dangerous.
- The Sharks follow up one shift of offensive pressure with a Celebrini shift, and he picks the short-side top corner from the slot to tie the game.
- Alexandre Carrier pinches up. Demidov is forced to play defence on the rush, but he shows excellent gap control and forces a dump-in. I think he will be a strong defensive player in his career. He’s too smart not to be.
- Slafkovský’s famous board work draws a cross-checking penalty on Celebrini as two Sharks have to come over and try to win the puck. There is 2:03 left for the Canadiens to claim the lead.
- San Jose gets a short-handed rush on a pass that was too ambitious from Demidov.
- Kirby Dach gets a great chance set up by Alex Newhook off a rebound in the low shot, but Nedeljkovic stops it.
- The shots were 16-10 for Montreal in the first and they did outscore San Jose 2-1, but go to the intermission in a 1-1 tie. They’re pushing too hard on offence, especially with low-percentage plays at the blue line. They can get enough chances without needing to make such dangerous plays, so hopefully they’re a bit more careful with the puck in the final 40 minutes.
Second period
- Kaiden Guhle jumps on the ice and tries to play the puck before his counterpart gets off, and that will force Montreal to begin the second period on a penalty kill.
- Celebrini scores his second goal on the power play. Montreal is challenging the play for offside, so there’s about a 95% chance this goal isn’t going to count. The review showed the play was close while toggling between two frames, but still enough to get the goal disallowed.
- Garry Galley is coming up with a handful of ways to change the rules so that goal would count.
- The crowd is booing Celebrini because they’re tired of how good he is I guess.
- Newhook takes a hard hit into the glass in his own zone, then throws one on Shakhir Mukhamadullin. His eventful shift ends with a shot off the post.
- Five minutes into the period, neither team has an official shot on goal, but a lot has been happening.
- Josh Anderson can’t get on the end of a three-way passing play from Phillip Danault and Texier that would have put Montreal on top.
- The crowd is trying to inspire the Canadiens as the period approaches its midpoint.
- Momentum has been on their side for a few minutes now. Now to capitalize.
- San Jose’s first shot of the period is a fluttering shot from Mario Ferraro at the point that gets behind Dobeš to put the Sharks up 2-1.
- The Sharks’ third shot of the period is flipped from Celebrini at the blue line off the arm of Collin Graf at the top of the crease and in to make it 3-1.
- You can hear Suzuki yell “Demi!” as he comes off the bench and sees an acre of space open in front of him. The rookie hears him, drops the puck back, and Suzuki fires in the 3-2 goal.
NZ turnover, Ivan Demidov with a little drop for Nick Suzuki, and he unleashes one. 3-2 #Habs have some life.
— Matt Drake (@drakemt.bsky.social) March 14, 2026 at 9:58 PM
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- They came close to tying it, but a lucky deflection off a Sharks’ defender’s stick thwarted a cross-ice setup from the top line.
- You can’t ask for much better defensive play than holding a dangerous team to three shots in a period, but San Jose was able to score two times on them. Montreal is trying to brute force its way through some bad luck tonight.
Third period
- It’s San Jose’s turn to have too many men on the ice early in a period. No better time than now to tie this game at three.
- Well that was about as bad as you can play with an extra man. I think we’ll see the second unit out first if there’s another opportunity.
- San Jose already has more shots in this period than they had in the second, and two of the opening six minutes were spent defending in their own zone.
- Dach tosses the puck toward the back of Nedlejkovic from the goal line hoping for a bounce, but the Habs aren’t getting any of those tonight.
- Oliver Kapanen gets the puck in the slot and the shot goes off the crossbar.
- The Sharks are trying to ice their way to victory. That’s rarely a winning strategy when Montreal tries it.
- Well, it’s worked for four minutes so far. They have three more to go.
- Dobeš goes to the bench with a tired group of Sharks on the ice.
- Celebrini gets his second goal of the night, third point, and seventh point of the season series on another odd pass from Suzuki that was well off the mark.
- This was a missed opportunity with Tampa Bay losing tonight. Now Montreal needs to beat a better team in the Anaheim Ducks tomorrow night to salvage this weekend.
EOTP 3 Stars
3) They just need to stay healthy
2) Let’s see Texier maintain that effort
1) It would have only been fair
