Cowan: Dogged Canadiens find a way after another second-period letup
The most impressive thing about this Canadiens team — the youngest in the NHL — is how they never give up.
That was on display again Wednesday night in Utah when the Canadiens blew a 2-0 lead on first-period goals by Nick Suzuki and Zachary Bolduc by giving up three unanswered goals in the second period. But they battled back in the third period,
getting goals by Suzuki and Ivan Demidov to win 4-3.
It marked the third time this season the Canadiens went into the third period trailing and came away with a win. They improved their record to 12-7-3 as they passed the quarter-mark of the season. The Canadiens are eight points ahead of their pace from last season, when they had an 8-11-3 record after 22 games and went on to make the playoffs for the first time in four years.
The Canadiens’ record would be better this season if they had better goaltending —
especially from Samuel Montembeault
, who is 4-5-1 with a 3.71 goals-against average and an .852 save percentage.
Former Canadiens head coach Michel Therrien used to say you need at least three goals to win a game in the NHL. The Canadiens have scored three or more goals in 17 of their 22 games. They have lost six times when scoring three or more.
After Wednesday’s win, the Canadiens ranked third in the NHL in offence, scoring an average of 3.45 goals per game. They no longer need great goaltending to win — like in the days of Carey Price — they just need good goaltending and Jakub Dobes has provided that the last two games. Dobes stopped 55 of the 60 shots he faced — both wins — for a .917 save percentage. The 24-year-old improved to 8-2-2 with a 2.89 GAA and an .897 save percentage and should be the No. 1 goalie moving forward.
After 22 games last season, the Canadiens had scored 62 goals. This season they have 76 goals.
Offence isn’t a problem, but second-period breakdowns are. The Canadiens have a minus-11 goal differential in the second period.
“I felt like those goals, we just didn’t play good. I didn’t make the extra save for a couple of minutes,” Dobes told reporters in Utah when asked about the second period Wednesday night. “It doesn’t define the game. Our coach said: ‘You guys played really well for a couple of minutes, so let’s just go back to our standard and let’s win this game,’ and that’s pretty much what we did. So it was pretty simple.”
Bonne nuit ou bon matin, selon quand vous voyez ceci
Good night or good morning, depending when you see this#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/yI9I26M8Bz— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) November 27, 2025
St. Louis says the toughest thing for a young player in the NHL is to be consistent, and he has a lot of young players.
Before leaving on this three-game road trip — which includes games against the Vegas Golden Knights on Friday
(4 p.m., TSN2, RDS)
and the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday
(3 p.m., TSN2, RDS)
— St. Louis was asked what’s the biggest lesson he learned about his team during the first quarter of the season.
“We just got to earn it every day,” he said. “It’s a hard league, don’t take anything for granted. We know what works. … Just get after it every day.”
With such a young team, it helps to have a veteran leader like Mike Matheson to help put things in perspective when things aren’t going well. Before the Canadiens hit the ice at the Bell Centre last
Saturday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs
— looking to end a five-game losing streak — Matheson made a little speech to his teammates.
“I just said, ‘enjoy it, have fun and know how lucky we are to do this,’ ” Matheson said after the Canadiens beat the Leafs 5-2. “I think sometimes we get caught feeling the pressure and feeling the heaviness of the pressure, and sometimes it helps when you just put it in perspective and know how lucky we are to do this.”
St. Louis understands he has a very young team, but believes in “the brand that we’re building,” and so do his players. He also understands there are going to be ups and downs with so many young players.
Ici, pas le choix de ressortir ça
Had to drop this in Utah#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/RYYxKFI2Hh— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) November 27, 2025
“My main job is to convince people … in a position of leadership, you got to convince people to do things a certain way and you do that in so many different ways,” he said. “It could be in conversations, meetings. It could be with video. It could be chalkboard. It could be anything. But that’s what we’re trying to do. You’re trying to convince the individual about their own habits and stuff, but also convince a group of people, a team, to play a certain way, our collective game.
“But every now and then you just fall short a little bit in the recipe,” he added. “Sometimes you fall short of the recipe, but you get a couple of good bounces and you can get a win. But if our recipe is to our standards, I think we’re in every game. And when that slips, it’s a hard league.”
Having a team that doesn’t give up certainly helps.
