Suzuki gets 3 points, Canadiens stay hot with OT win against Canucks

MONTREAL -- Nick Suzuki scored a power-play goal 48 seconds into overtime to give the Montreal Canadiens a 5-4 win against the Vancouver Canucks at Bell Centre on Monday.

Suzuki, who also had two assists, scored with a wrist shot from the edge of the right circle off a pass from Lane Hutson after Nils Hoglander was penalized for interference with 36 seconds remaining in the third.

“We were kind of looking at what options were open and ‘Suzi’ decided to move and I moved and they kind of left a little seam for him to shoot it, and he took it, and that was kind of it,” Hutson said.

Hutson had a goal and two assists, and Cole Caufield scored for the fourth straight game for Montreal (19-18-3), which overcame a two-goal deficit for its eighth win in its past 10 games. Sam Montembeault made 16 saves.

“We’re learning how to come back in games and when you start bleeding you’ve got to figure out how to stop it,” Caufield said. “I think we’ve had times in the past where we just kind of let it get away, but I thought it was a huge, mature game from our group tonight, and especially huge for the fans.”

J.T. Miller had two goals and two assists, and Jonathan Lekkerimaki had a goal and an assist for Vancouver (18-12-9), which is 1-2-2 in its past five games. Kevin Lankinen made 19 saves.

“We had a good push there,” Miller said. “We need to be able to hold onto leads like that, have to be comfortable with the lead. It seems we’re unfortunately a little less comfortable than before. And they had a really good second period push and we didn’t really have an answer. I thought it wasn’t all bad, but still, a two-goal lead, we should be able to lock that down.”

Quinn Hughes, who played in his 400th game, had two assists in his return for the Canucks after missing four games because of an upper-body injury.

“Obviously, when you go into overtime 4-on-3 it’s tough,” Hughes said. “I know ‘Hogs’ had no stick there; I really liked his game tonight. I think he’s just trying to take his man and the refs saw it as a penalty, so it could have gone either way on that one.”

Caufield scored at 1:07 of the first period to give Montreal a 1-0 lead. He put a wrist shot past Lankinen’s glove from the top of the slot for his fifth goal in six games.

Miller tied it 1-1 at 10:47 when he one-timed a pass from Hoglander past Montembeault’s glove from the right side of the slot.

Miller then put Vancouver up 2-1 at 3:21 of the second. He got to a loose puck and flipped a backhand over Montembeault after Lekkerimaki drove through the crease.

Lekkerimaki followed that up with a goal 20 seconds later to make it 3-1. He skated in on a 2-on-1 and beat Montembeault stick side from the top of the left face-off circle.

Lekkerimaki was recalled from Abbotsford of the American Hockey League on an emergency basis Monday after forward Dakota Joshua was placed on injured reserve (retroactive to Jan. 3).

“That was a nice goal,” Canucks coach Rick Tocchet said. “I thought he held his own tonight. He’s been playing well down there. (Heck) of a shot, that’s his gift. So, I hope that he builds off that.”

Kaiden Guhle cut it to 3-2 at 10:35 on a wrist shot under Lankinen’s blocker from the right point.

Kirby Dach tied it 3-3 with a power-play goal at 2:01 of the third when he slipped the rebound of Hutson’s shot between Lankinen’s pads from the crease.

Hutson put Montreal ahead 4-3 at 6:54, scoring unassisted when his pass attempt went in off Hughes’ skate.

“I definitely wasn’t trying to shoot,” Hutson said. “I saw (Emil) Heineman, back door, so I was trying to get him the puck. And sometimes you get a lucky bounce, and that was definitely a lucky bounce.”

Jake DeBrusk tied it 4-4 with a power-play goal at 8:51, shooting into an open net from the edge of the right face-off circle off a cross-ice pass from Miller.

NOTES: Hutson has 30 points in 42 NHL games. He is the fastest Canadiens defenseman to reach 30 points, surpassing Chris Chelios, who got his 30th point in his 45th game. … Hutson has eight multipoint games this season. The only rookie defensemen to have more for Montreal are Chelios (17 in 1984-85) and Guy Lapointe (10 in 1970-71). … The Canucks’ two goals in 20 seconds were their fastest since Oct. 17, 2022, when Bo Horvat and Curtis Lazar scored 11 seconds apart in the second period of a 6-4 loss at the Washington Capitals.