Canadiens defeat Golden Knights in OT in Game 3, take lead in Semifinals

MONTREAL -- Josh Anderson scored his second goal 12:53 into overtime, and the Montreal Canadiens took the lead in the Stanley Cup Semifinals with a 3-2 win against the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 3 at Bell Centre on Friday.

Anderson tapped in a pass across the slot from Paul Byron on a 2-on-0 to win it.
Anderson tied the game 2-2 with 1:55 remaining in the third period after Golden Knights goalie Marc-Andre Fleury misplayed the puck behind his net.
"We had a press late in the third period there, and obviously we got a fortunate bounce on the tying goal," Anderson said. "And then in OT it looked like we had a lot more energy than them. We came out hard and found a way …. in a huge game that we needed to win."

Vegas had outshot Montreal 39-17 when Fleury turned it over to Anderson, who was alone in front to score into a wide-open net for his first goal in 13 games.
"Those type of events are tough to recover from," Golden Knights coach Peter DeBoer said. "We talked between the third and the overtime about trying to get our mojo back. I didn't think we were poor in overtime, but there's no doubt that carried into the overtime for us a little on the negative side and for sure gave them some pop going out to overtime."
Cole Caufield scored, and Carey Price made 43 saves for the Canadiens, who played without coach Dominique Ducharme after he tested positive for COVID-19.
"We just don't quit," Price said. "... Not having Dom behind the bench is just another twist we're going to have to deal with."
Nicolas Roy and Alex Pietrangelo scored, and Fleury made 24 saves for the Golden Knights, who lost Game 2 3-2 at home on Wednesday.
"Fleury's played great for us all year," Vegas captain Mark Stone said. "It's one mistake. We had to bail him out and did not play the way we played for the first 60 (minutes) in overtime."
Game 4 is at Montreal on Sunday. Teams that take a 2-1 lead are 57-18 (.760) winning a best-of-7 Stanley Cup Playoff semifinal series.
Pietrangelo put the Golden Knights up 2-1 at 2:22 of the third period. The defenseman drove the middle to take a return pass from Max Pacioretty and scored his third goal in two games on a wrist shot from the top of the slot.
Vegas took the first 12 shots on its way to outshooting Montreal 17-3 in the first period and 30-8 through the second, but the game was tied.
"You guys all saw it tonight, it was incredible," Anderson said of Price. "Not only to play like that, but for the fans too. He kept us in the game all game, and we wouldn't be sitting here talking about this without him."

Roy gave the Golden Knights a 1-0 lead with an unassisted goal off a turnover at 3:16 of the second period. Roy cut off Eric Staal's attempt to feed a soft pass to linemate Corey Perry from behind the Canadiens net and scored on a low wrist shot inside the right post.
Caufield scored on a breakaway 38 seconds later to tie it 1-1. He drove the middle to get behind defensemen Nick Holden and Zach Whitecloud, caught up with Nick Suzuki's pass in the slot, and settled down a rolling puck before scoring on a wrist shot into the top right corner at 3:54.
Vegas was 0-for-4 on the power play and is 0-for-10 in the series. Montreal has killed 25 straight penalties.
"The power play wasn't great," DeBoer said. "That was probably the only piece of our game that wasn't great. There's things to fix this time of year for every team in the League, and that's something that we've got to continue to work at."
Canadiens captain Shea Weber said Ducharme spoke to the team on Zoom before and after the game.
"Obviously, it hurts to lose Dom," Weber said. "He's been great for us."
Luke Richardson replaced Ducharme, assisted by Alexandre Burrows and director of goaltending Sean Burke.
"We didn't have too much time to think about it," Richardson said. "We were running things the way Dom runs it here, and it's business as usual."
NOTES: It was the first time a United States-based NHL team played in Montreal in 15 months because of concerns related to the pandemic. … Price is the fourth Canadiens goalie with at least 10 wins in one postseason and first since Patrick Roy won 16 when he helped Montreal win the Cup in 1993. Gump Worsley had 11 wins in the 1968 playoffs (won Cup); Ken Dryden had 12 each of the six seasons he won the Cup with the Canadiens during the 1970s; and Roy had 15 in 1986 (won Cup) and 13 in 1989. … Tyler Toffoli had his point streak end at eight games (five goals, five assists), one from tying the Montreal playoff record held by Guy Lafleur (1977) and Larry Robinson (1978).
NHL.com columnist Nicholas J. Cotsonika contributed to this report