Canadiens lose to Jets in OT, still seek first win for Ducharme

WINNIPEG -- The Montreal Canadiens lost a second straight game with Dominique Ducharme as coach, 2-1 in overtime to the Winnipeg Jets at Bell MTS Place on Saturday.

Paul Stastny scored 36 seconds into overtime when he pushed the puck over the goal line after an initial shot from the right face-off circle by Nikolaj Ehlers trickled past goalie Jake Allen.
"We stayed the course. We stayed with it," Ducharme said. " … It's too bad for our guys, they deserved a second [goal]."
Connor Hellebuyck made 40 saves, and Ehlers had a goal and an assist for the Jets (13-6-1), who swept the two-game set after they scored five unanswered goals in a 6-3 win in Ducharme's debut here Thursday.

"I think overtime is a crapshoot, especially 3-on-3," Stastny said. "You might as well go out there and play aggressive. You could play a five-minute overtime and not have one chance either way and just sit back, or once there's one chance you can just kind of trade chances.
"Sometimes it's a coach's nightmare, a goalie's nightmare. But for the fans and the players, it's always fun going 3-on-3 and knowing any time you're out there it could end real quick."
Nick Suzuki scored for the Canadiens (9-6-5), who lost their fifth straight game (0-2-3). Allen made 19 saves.
"I just thought it was an attitude adjustment," Allen said. "We had a good day at practice yesterday and a good skate today and mood in the room and good attitude tonight. Obviously we did a few things structurally that got in and our offensive zone game was great, and we're going to get better."
Ehlers scored on a wrist shot from beyond the circles on a power play at 10:38 of the second period to give the Jets a 1-0 lead.

"I don't think we played our greatest game today," Ehlers said. "We knew how they were going to come out. That's what you expect every single game. Montreal's a great team. They've got some really good players, so these games are a lot of fun. All the tight games, obviously you wish you could win every single game 6-2, whatever it is, but the tight games, they feel that much better.
"We didn't play our greatest, but [Hellebuyck] was great again tonight and we gave ourselves a chance to win."
Suzuki tied it 1-1 with a shot from behind the goal line near the right goal post at 15:13 of the second.

The Canadiens outshot the Jets 14-2 in the third period, but Hellebuyck helped force overtime.
"I like the way I've been playing, I like the way tonight went," Hellebuyck said. "I'm pretty happy with the outcome."
NOTES: Jets center Mark Scheifele's six-game goal streak ended, one short of the Jets/Atlanta Thrashers record, held by forward
Ilya Kovalchuk
from Jan. 1-13, 2006. Scheifele's NHL career-high 11-game point streak (eight goals, 10 assists) also ended. … Canadiens center Jake Evans won five of nine face-offs and had two hits in 9:51 of ice time after being a healthy scratch Thursday. … Ehlers has a three-game point streak (one goal, three assists).