- Martin St. Louis said the call to keep Jakub Dobes in Game 5 came from goalie coach Marco Marciano
- Dobes gave up three goals on four shots before stopping the next 32 in a 6-3 Montreal win
- Read below for the full quote and presser video from the Canadiens coach
Martin St. Louis didn’t make the call to keep Jakub Dobes in net during Game 5. And he’s not pretending he did.
The Canadiens head coach addressed the moment after Thursday’s 6-3 win in Buffalo. Dobes had coughed up three goals on the first four shots and looked like he might get the hook, but St. Louis let his staff make the call.
“I feel like the goalie position is probably the one position that I can’t help much with,” St. Louis said. “So I try to stay out of it and not be emotionally driven or be upset that we’re down.”
Here’s the clip from the post-game presser:
Assistant coach Trevor Letowski was on the headset with interim goalie coach Marco Marciano, who was watching from the press box. Marciano’s verdict, per St. Louis: “Keep him in.”
That decision turned the series around. Dobes stopped the final 32 shots he faced, including a sprawling stop on a Tage Thompson breakaway early in the second period. Josh Anderson, Jake Evans, Nick Suzuki and Ivan Demidov scored four straight as Montreal flipped a 3-2 deficit into a 6-3 win.
St. Louis pointed back to the chain of command when asked specifically about Marciano.
“I feel you have to empower the people that are actually certified for the position,” St. Louis said. “So that’s what I did.”
Marciano joined the Canadiens from AHL Laval in late January after the team fired Eric Raymond, when Montreal’s goaltending ranked 28th in the league in save percentage.
Dobes has played every minute of these playoffs and sits one win from the Eastern Conference Final.
Watch the full NHL recap of Thursday’s win:
Game 6 goes Saturday at Bell Centre. Carolina is already waiting in the next round after sweeping Philadelphia.
