Cole Caufield and the Montreal Canadiens will try to rebound from an embarrassing defeat when they host Clayton Keller and the Utah Mammoth on Thursday.
The Canadiens saw their five-game winning streak end in epic fashion against the visiting Jets on Tuesday. Montreal previously won 2-1 at Winnipeg on Oct. 25 and was full of confidence following a hard-fought 5-4 victory against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday.
Caufield scored twice Tuesday on the power play, including a goal 46 seconds into the third period to give Montreal a 4-0 lead.
The score remained the same as the clock ticked into the final three minutes. Then the Jets produced the latest four-goal comeback in NHL history, including two goals from Kyle Connor in the last minute of regulation to send the tilt to overtime.
Jets defenseman Dylan Samberg fired a shot past Jacob Fowler at 3:30 of OT to seal the historic comeback win.
“You look at that game, we were winning, but we weren’t beating them,” Montreal coach Martin St. Louis said, a nod to the Jets outshooting the Canadiens 47-22.
“I think we gave up like 80-something shot attempts, but I didn’t need data. They were better than we were tonight. They weren’t winning, but they had a lot of urgency. They didn’t quit.”
Despite the stunning setback, the Canadiens extended their point streak to eight games (6-0-2).
The Mammoth have been far more inconsistent, alternating wins and losses over their past nine games. On the plus side, Utah has won two of the first three contests on its six-game road trip.
After pulling out a 4-3 overtime victory against the Penguins to start the trip, the Mammoth took a 6-3 loss against the Philadelphia Flyers. Utah rebounded with a hard-fought 3-2 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday.
Toronto tied the contest 2-2 at 9:05 of the third period on a goal from Jack Roslovic. Nick Schmaltz notched the winning tally on a power play at 13:12, catching Sergei Bobrovsky out of position to score on the rebound of a shot from Keller.
“It was a heck of a save by Bobrovsky, so I just tried to get in there and whack it in,” Schmaltz said. “It was a nice one just sitting there for me.”
Dylan Guenther and Andrew Peeke also scored for the Mammoth, and Keller recorded three assists, increasing his team-leading total to 17. Sebastian Cossa made 27 saves for his fourth win in five starts this season.
“I think we played a really, really good hockey game for the first two periods,” Mammoth coach Andre Tourigny said. “I really liked our identity and what we wanted. We were connected, disciplined in our details, and we played really (well). They had a push in the third, and we were on our heels a little bit, and we will learn a lot from that.”
The Thursday contest opens the teams’ two-game season series, which concludes at Salt Lake City on Nov. 30. Montreal has won the past three meetings.
