By Canadian Press

St. Louis grabs first win as head coach, Canadiens top Blues in overtime

Feb 17, 2022 | 8:18 PM

MONTREAL — The monkey is officially off Montreal’s back all thanks to Cole Caufield. The Canadiens snapped one of the worst droughts in franchise history with a 3-2 overtime win over the St. Louis Blues Thursday night.

Caufield forced overtime with 8.7 seconds left in regulation and notched the game-winner to snap Montreal’s 10-game winless streak. Paul Byron added a goal in his 500th NHL game.

Interim head coach Martin St. Louis was 0-3-0 since his debut behind the bench. In a bizarre circumstance, St. Louis notched his first win as a head coach against the Blues, a team from a city that matched his last name.

In a third straight start, Samuel Montembeault stopped 26 shots and allowed two goals.

Ville Husso made 27 saves, allowing three goals, in his first game back at the Bell Centre since playing for Finland in the 2015 World Juniors.

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On his 500th NHL game, Paul Byron found his first goal of the season and gave Montreal a rare opening marker this season. After missing most of the campaign due to hip surgery, Byron stood in the right spot in the slot to tap in a pass from Arturri Lehtonen behind the net at the 7:13 mark of the first period.

The Blues tied the score on a shorthanded effort with 1:34 to go in the first. Robert Thomas and Pavel Buchnevich exchanged passes on the rush and Thomas beat Montembeault with his seventh goal of the season.

Neither team found the go-ahead goal in the second period and well into the third, and couldn’t capitalize on the eight penalties given in the final 40 minutes of play.

The Blues finally found their way with 1:19 to go. Buchnevich powered his way to what looked to be the game-winning goal with a slap shot from the right faceoff circle giving Montreal hardly any time to equalize.

But that was all the time the Habs needed. Caufield forced an overtime period on a one-timer with less than nine seconds remaining.

The rookie wasn’t done there. Caufield was still hungry for goals and gave his team the game-winner from another one-timer, clinching the win.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 17, 2022.

Tristan D’Amours, The Canadian Press