Dobes makes 41 saves, Canadiens rally past Hurricanes

MONTREAL -- Jakub Dobes made 41 saves, and the Montreal Canadiens rallied for a 5-2 win against the Carolina Hurricanes at Bell Centre on Tuesday.

Cole Caufield scored his 44th goal and assisted on Juraj Slafkovsky’s go-ahead goal in the second period for Montreal (39-21-10), which has won three of four, including 7-3 against the New York Islanders on Saturday. Slafkovsky and Ivan Demidov each had a goal and an assist.

“Unreal,” was how Caufield described Dobes’ performance, with Carolina holding a 17-4 shot advantage in the third and 43-19 for the game. “He’s been doing it all year. He competes, he battles, he just always gives us a chance and keeps us in games, obviously the breakaway save at the end there. It’s cool to see the crowd get behind a guy like that.”

Caufield, who is second in the NHL to Nathan MacKinnon (46) of the Colorado Avalanche in goals, has seven goals and 12 points during a six-game point streak. His linemates, meanwhile, are on seven-game point streaks. Slafkovsky has 10 points (five goals, five assists) during his streak, and Nick Suzuki, who assisted on Caufield’s goal, has 12 points (three goals, nine assists).

The Canadiens are third in the Atlantic Division, five points behind the Tampa Bay Lightning for second place, and two points ahead of the Boston Bruins, who have played one more game.

“(Dobes) is really dialed right now,” Slafkovsky said. “I really think he knows how important this stretch is and he wants to help the team. He wants to stop as many pucks as he can, and when you have someone like that it makes you more confident with the puck.” 

Nikolaj Ehlers and Jordan Staal scored and Frederik Andersen made 14 saves for Carolina (45-20-6), which blew an early 2-0 lead and had its three-game winning streak end.

Carolina is nine points ahead of the Columbus Blue Jackets for first in the Metropolitan Division and one point ahead of the Buffalo Sabres for first in the Eastern Conference.

“It’s hard because for the most part we were really good tonight,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “When you look at the score, you’re like, ‘What just happened?’ But it wasn’t that kind of game.” 

Caufield tied it 2-2 at 5:49 of the second period when he put away the rebound of Suzuki’s shot.

“I like how we played,” Caufield said. “We just didn’t freak out after going down two.”

Slafkovsky put the Canadiens up 3-2 at 9:19. Caufield appeared to have scored his second goal of the game, but his deflection of Noah Dobson’s shot from the left point struck Slafkovsky on its way up and past Andersen's glove.

“I wasn’t sure if it was the (defenseman's) stick, but (Caufield) had a nice celebration so I didn’t want to ruin it,” Slafkovsky said.

Demidov made it 4-2 at 13:53 of the third period, scoring the Canadiens’ fourth straight goal on a breakaway.

Jake Evans shot the puck into an empty net from the left face-off dot in the defensive zone with 1:00 remaining in the third for the 5-2 final.

“It’s about what you give up, and I think we gave up maybe one too many in that second period,” Staal said. “We kind of took the foot off the gas a bit and they made us pay. They had a couple of quick goals. They’ve got some talent, and when you’re behind in this league, it’s not easy. 

“And we had some looks to definitely tie it up and played a solid game, but there’s little things about finding ways to defend and making sure the puck’s not in the back of our net.”

Ehlers put Carolina ahead 1-0 at 2:36 of the first period with a power-play goal. His shot from the left boards deflected off Canadiens defenseman Mike Matheson’s stick and slipped between Dobes and the post stick side.

Staal scored unassisted at 7:09 to make it 2-0. Jalen Chatfield’s dump-in bounced off Matheson along the boards and was swiped by Montreal forward Oliver Kapanen’s stick to Staal, who was alone in the slot and flipped a shot over Dobes’ left shoulder as he backed into right edge of the face-off circle.

Kapanen cut it to 2-1 at 12:11 when he deflected Jayden Struble’s shot from the point down and past Andersen.

“We have to learn that we can’t fall asleep at the start,” Slafkovsky said. “Our execution has to be on the top level against a team like that. And then we have to make sure we get pucks deep and we play our best game. So then we make them defend and don’t give them as much time, pretty much like they were doing to us.”

NOTES: Staal’s goal was his 196th for Carolina, tying Geoff Sanderson for eighth in Hurricanes/Hartford Whalers history. … It was Demidov’s 14th multipoint game, the fourth-most by a Canadiens player 20 years old or younger, one fewer than Guy Lafleur, Stephane Richer and Alex Galchenyuk, who each had 15 multipoint games before turning 21.