The Habs pull off a miracle in Ottawa

To finish up a three-game road trip, the Montreal Canadiens were in Ottawa for hockey day in Canada. Their last game against the Senators was certainly less than ideal, and this one was unfortunately no different. This time, however, the Habs had some magic up their sleeves.

After a decent first period, albeit one where the Habs could only do damage with their power play, they went to the room with a two-goal lead. What followed was an atrocious second period in which they mustered a paltry three shots, were incredibly lucky to score the one goal they had, and watched a dominant Senators squad put up four goals to take a lead of their own into the third period. It was an unmitigated disaster of a period, and it felt like they were cooked when the horn went off to signal the end of it.

If they seemed cooked then, they were past well-done when the Sens stormed down the ice and took a two-goal lead immediately after a failed Habs power play in the third. They looked deflated, slow, and if the power play that had two goals for them already couldn’t do it, there was little hope that they would find another way to make it a game.

But Martin St-Louis decided to go for broke, pulling Samuel Montembeault with over four minutes remaining on the clock. The Habs responded, with Juraj Slafkovsky tipping a Lane Hutson shot to bring them within a goal. Shortly thereafter, Ivan Demidov spotted a wide open Alex Carrier from behind the net, and teed him up for a one-timer that caused overtime to loom.

But getting to overtime alone wasn’t enough, as Mr. Saturday night completed one of the more improbable comebacks of the season, sending the Habs home with two huge points in a game where their play for the majority of the game deserved none.

MONSIEUR SAMEDI SOIR

COLE CALLS GAME#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/Hpzw7dl6yC

— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) January 18, 2026

It was encouraging to hear St-Louis acknowledge how badly they were dominated in the second and third periods after the game. They can’t take a win like that as a confirmation that they played well enough to earn it, but rather, as St-Louis put it: “If you don’t give up, you give yourselves a chance.” That they stuck with the game when all seemed lost is commendable, but they would do well to understand how that kind of overall effort usually ends with a regulation loss.

Fatigue may have played a role with how grueling the team’s schedule has been of late, so we’ll see how they return after the two days off they’re now getting. The schedule is rough for just about every team in the league, however, and the Habs have a number of players who won’t be resting during the olympic break. If fatigue really was a culprit for their play on Saturday, they have to figure out a way to mitigate that problem knowing that their schedule isn’t going to magically get easier.

Alas, they don’t ask how, they ask how many, and those two points put the Habs at 61 on the year. In a very tight Atlantic division, sometimes you have to take them however you can get them.

Click the play button below to listen to your full Bottom Six Minutes, also available wherever you get your podcasts. We’ll be back on Tuesday night, when the Habs will return to the Bell Centre to face the Minnesota Wild.