- Alex Newhook scored at 11:22 of OT to beat the Sabres 3-2 in Game 7
- He’s the second player ever with two Game 7 series-winning goals in one postseason, joining Nathan Horton in 2011
- Read below for the video of the OT winner, Jakub Dobes’ 37-save bounce-back, and what’s next against Carolina
Alex Newhook did it again.
The Canadiens forward scored at 11:22 of overtime Monday night at KeyBank Center, beating Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen with a low wrist shot from the top of the left circle.
Montreal beat the Buffalo Sabres 3-2 in Game 7. The Habs are headed to the Eastern Conference Final.
It was Newhook’s second Game 7 series-clinching goal of this postseason. According to NHL PR, only one other player in league history has ever done that: Nathan Horton, who knocked off the Canadiens in the Conference Quarterfinals and then the Lightning in the Conference Finals during Boston’s Cup run in 2011.
Catch the OT winner here:
Alexandre Carrier slid a cross-ice feed to Newhook, who walked into the circle and beat Luukkonen’s glove inside the far post. Newhook is now the fourth player in Canadiens history to score a Game 7 overtime winner, and the first to do it on the road.
Newhook was asked about pulling off the feat twice in one playoff run.
“Well, it’s a crazy feeling, you know, to come up and get two wins to keep us going here in the playoffs,” Newhook told ESPN’s Emily Kaplan. “It’s fun. It’s why you play the game.”
His first dagger came in Round 1 against Tampa Bay, when he batted a bouncing puck past Andrei Vasilevskiy in the third period to knock out the Lightning. Different opponent, different period, same result.
Phillip Danault and Zachary Bolduc had the other goals for Montreal. Danault opened the scoring 4:30 into the first when Kaiden Guhle’s centering pass kicked off his skate and past Luukkonen. Bolduc made it 2-0 on the power play late in the first, roofing a one-timer off a Nick Suzuki backhand feed.
Buffalo crawled back. Jordan Greenway tipped a Mattias Samuelsson shot in the second, and Rasmus Dahlin tied it 6:27 into the third on a one-timer from the left circle.
Jakub Dobes was the other story. After getting yanked in the Game 6 blowout, the rookie stopped 37 shots to outduel Luukkonen.
Dobes talked about the bounce-back after the game.
“I take things pretty personal and obviously getting pulled at home, it’s personal to me,” Dobes said on ESPN’s SportsCenter. “I was just trying to prove myself again and show up for the guys.”
Watch the full Game 7 highlights:
Martin St. Louis’ group is now 6-0 following a loss this postseason, outscoring opponents 22-11 in those bounce-back spots. That’s the kind of pattern that tends to scare the room next door.
Up next: the Carolina Hurricanes, who swept the Flyers and have been waiting 11 days for a dance partner, a new modern-day NHL record for time between series. Game 1 goes Thursday in Raleigh at 8 p.m. ET on TNT.
Newhook keeps writing his name into Habs lore one Game 7 at a time.
