Celebrini’s OT goal lifts Sharks past Canadiens 4-3

MONTREAL: Macklin Celebrini scored twice, including the winner on a power play 2:13 into overtime, as the San Jose Sharks rallied from a two-goal deficit to beat the Montreal Canadiens 4-3 on Tuesday night.

Celebrini one-timed a pass from Ivar Stenberg from the right faceoff circle past Jakub Dobes after the Canadiens goalie was penalized for interference on Collin Graf at 1:53 of overtime. It was his fourth overtime goal, tying Ilya Kovalchuk and Sean Monahan for the most by an NHL player 20 or younger, the league said.

Tyler Toffoli tied it 3-3 on the power play at 11:09 of the third period, one-timing a pass from Celebrini. Michael Misa had cut the lead to 3-2 at 5:36 of the third on a feed from Kiefer Sherwood.

Montreal led 3-1 after two periods. Nick Suzuki tied the game 1-1 late in the first, Juraj Slafkovsky made it 2-1 early in the second with a goal that came after he flipped the puck past defenceman Darnell Nurse and recovered it, and Cole Caufield scored at 14:03 of the second period on a feed from Suzuki. Celebrini had opened the scoring at 13:49 of the first period.

Alex Nedeljkovic made 31 saves for San Jose, and Dobes stopped 26 shots for Montreal.

“I think we were a little bit disconnected in the first couple (of periods), and just to have everyone on the same page, working together and getting rewarded for it was nice,” Celebrini said.

Caufield said he understood why Dobes tried to protect his crease. “At the end of the day he’s a competitor and he wants to win,” Caufield said, adding that the penalty gave the Sharks an opportunity. “You can’t do that to a group of guys like that who can make you pay on the power play.”

“I felt like we had some chances in the third and stuff but we gave them too much,” Slafkovsky said.

The Sharks improved to 5-4-1 after losing their previous two games, including a 3-1 defeat in Toronto on Monday. Forward Alexander Wennberg did not play after an injury Monday and is day to day.

The Canadiens fell to 4-3-2. They beat the Buffalo Sabres in overtime earlier this season, and visit the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday night.

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Via NHL.com and Dose.ca.