Coronato ties it late, lifts Flames past Canadiens in OT

MONTREAL -- Matt Coronato scored his second goal of the game seven seconds into overtime after tying it late in the third period, and the Calgary Flames rallied for a 3-2 win against the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Tuesday.

Coronato drove in on the rush after retrieving the puck off the face-off at center ice and shot past goalie Sam Montembeault from the left circle to win it.

“He’s remarkable,” Calgary goalie Dustin Wolf said. “He’s had so many chances to score and he’s kind of been snakebit a few times. And to see him score two, unbelievable shots. That’s the scouting report on him -- his shot’s lethal. To see him get rewarded, and obviously the team as well, that feels good to get the road trip started.”

Coronato tied it 2-2 with his first goal at 17:14 of the third, spinning near the side boards and scoring on a wrist shot from the left circle.

“I think when I picked it up I kind of had a little more time than I was expecting,” Coronato said of the tying goal. “So I just tried to get to the middle and get a shot on him, and I think it was Blake [Coleman] in front of the net doing a great job of taking the goalie’s eyes away, so it was a good job by him too.”

Connor Zary also scored, and Wolf made 22 saves for the Flames (7-5-1), who had lost five of six.

“I thought as a team and as a line we got better and better as the game went,” Coleman said. “And in the third period I thought we had a lot of really good looks, and the kid can shoot it, and a couple of big ones.”

Joel Armia had a short-handed goal and an assist, and Brendan Gallagher also scored for the Canadiens (4-7-2), who have lost four straight and eight of 10 (2-6-2). Montembeault made 32 saves.

“It’s a slim margin between winning and losing in this league, and you saw it tonight,” Gallagher said. “Through 40 [minutes], I thought the game deserved to be tied, and when you have a lead in the third you should be able to lock it down.”

Zary gave Calgary a 1-0 lead at 4:20 of the second period. He scored from the slot on a loose puck after Daniil Miromanov’s one-timer from the top of the left circle struck Nazem Kadri in front of the net.

Gallagher tied it 1-1 with a power-play goal at 16:23. He was left alone in front of the net to receive Armia’s flipped backhand pass from the left corner.

Armia scored short-handed to put Montreal ahead 2-1 at 5:56 of the third. He snapped a wrist shot over Wolf’s right shoulder after taking Jake Evans’ pass on a 2-on-1 with the Flames on a power play.

“I thought offensively we got a lot better,” Evans said. “Defensively we didn’t give up too much and I thought we improved as a team, we just didn’t get the result.”

Gallagher scored again at 11:36, but the goal was waved off after video review following a coach’s challenge by Calgary determined Josh Anderson was offside on the play.

“That was the one shot of the game where I thought it wasn’t what I wanted to do,” Wolf said. “To see them challenge it and it come back, it obviously gives me life, gives the bench life, and to take advantage of that was pretty awesome.”

NOTES: Coronato was one second short of tying the fastest goal to begin an overtime period in NHL history. Six players have scored six seconds into overtime: Adrian Kempe (April 18, 2024), William Nylander (Jan. 24, 2018), Andreas Athanasiou (Jan. 3, 2018), Alex Ovechkin (Dec. 15, 2006), David Legwand (March 9, 2006) and Mats Sundin (Dec. 30, 1995). … Armia has scored 15 short-handed goals since making his debut in 2014-15, which is tied with Evander Kane for the sixth most over that span. The only players with more are Brad Marchand (23), Jean-Gabriel Pageau (21), Cam Atkinson (18), Coleman (17) and Sebastian Aho (17).