Anderson, Dvorak, and Gallagher each shined with nine points in the 6-3 win over Ottawa, which put the Canadiens in the wild-card spot.
This time of year is when the races for the Wild Card spots in both conferences are in the spotlight. Of all the competitions that typically take place in the final stretch of an NHL regular season—both collectively and individually—it’s these final spots that tend to be the most coveted, especially given the number of teams chasing them.
One of those teams is the Montreal Canadiens, who appear determined to return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since losing in the 2021 Final. From there, the team embarked on an intense but seemingly rapid rebuild, finishing last in their division for three consecutive years.
So far, Martin St. Louis’s squad is achieving their goal. With Montreal’s 6-3 victory over the Ottawa Senators at the Bell Centre on Tuesday, the Canadiens moved past the New York Rangers to temporarily move into second place in the Eastern Conference Wild Card standings.
Perhaps most importantly, the club relied on its depth—an important trait for playoff teams—to secure the two points.
While the Canadiens’ main line of Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki, and Juraj Slafkovsky had recently garnered attention (15 combined points in their last three games), it was the rest of the team’s roster that made the difference. The trio of Josh Anderson, Christian Dvorak, and Brendan Gallagher combined for nine points, propelling the Canadiens toward a playoff berth.
Anderson hasn’t missed a game this season despite dealing with a series of injuries, and his teammates and coach have taken note. Suzuki stated after the game that the team is in playoff mode, with each game becoming more and more important in the final stretch.
With that in mind, Tuesday’s win over Ottawa was clearly the most significant of the season for them—and likely in many years. Although, of course, for a team in this position, they’re likely to face challenges just as intense in the coming weeks.
But until then, the club should be proud of these two points earned against Ottawa—a team that sits in first place in the Wild Card standings, four points ahead of Montreal.
Suzuki put the Canadiens ahead with less than five minutes remaining in regulation. This goal marked Suzuki’s second consecutive 70-point season, the first player to achieve that feat for Montreal since Mark Recchi between 1995-96 and 1997-98 (3).
Including that goal, the Canadiens exploded with five goals in the third period, the first time they’ve done so since November 27, 2021. Montreal (33-27-7, 73 points) snapped the Senators’ six-game winning streak and edged the Rangers (33-30-6, 72 points) for the final Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference.
«We just came out here after the second period and tried to calm down,» said Montreal captain Suzuki. «I think we knew we hadn’t played our best hockey, so we tried to stick to the game plan, come out and execute at a higher level, and we were rewarded for that.»
In a game filled with emotions, the Canadiens’ performance in that final stretch at the Bell Centre was something that hadn’t happened since November 27, 2021. Suzuki scored that decisive goal on a power play with 4:37 remaining in the third period, following a play in which Brendan Gallagher stole the puck from Senators goaltender Linus Ullmark. Josh Anderson also got on the scoreboard with two goals, while Christian Dvorak shined with four points.
Sam Montembeault, meanwhile, was solid in goal with 22 saves, limiting any late comeback attempts by the visitors.
«We were doing well,» Anderson said. «We were confident in our ability to come back and just stick to our game. We were doing everything we could to produce and try to win that game, and we wanted to keep pushing, and that’s exactly what we did.»
The Canadiens now head to Long Island for another matchup with major playoff implications, as Montreal faces the New York Islanders at UBS Arena on Thursday, facing a team that is also in contention, just three points behind Montreal.
But with this win — their seventh in 10 games (7-1-2), in which they have scored points in nine of them — the Canadiens are confident in the great momentum they have generated at this point in the year to hold on to this position (or even more) and get that coveted return ticket to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.