Canadiens display resilience, capture elusive playoff berth in final game

MONTREAL -- The fourth time, it seems, was a charm.

The Montreal Canadiens are heading back to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2021, finally nailing down the second wild card of the Eastern Conference on Wednesday with a 4-2 Bell Centre victory against the Carolina Hurricanes.

Montreal’s first win in four games has pushed them into a first round series against the Washington Capitals. Moving beyond the regular season is met in this market with equal parts joy and relief, fans having watched their team fail to clinch three times and, on Wednesday, skate in a bit of quicksand before getting untracked late in the second period, holding off a late Hurricanes push.

“It’s been tough,” said captain Nick Suzuki, who scored his 30th goal of the season, added an assist and was plus-4. “I think we’ve just been building and building… a lot of anticipation wondering when we’d clinch our spot. It took us a few more games than we wanted but that’s kind of been the story of our season so far. To win the game on home ice to clinch, I don’t think we could have written it any better.”

In a city that’s obsessed with hockey rain or shine -- it was snowing lightly Wednesday morning -- Canadiens fans rode the euphoric high of a six-game winning streak from March 30 through April 8 to the stomach-churning depths of a three-game losing streak April 11-14 that put wild-card hopes on thin ice.

Breathing down their necks have been the charging Columbus Blue Jackets, now winners of five straight.

On Wednesday, with the playoff-bound Hurricanes resting a handful of top players, the Canadiens finally got the job done in their final game of the regular season. The Blue Jackets will now play out the string on Thursday at home against the New York Islanders, both eliminated from the postseason.

Suzuki won’t be watching, having tuned in to the past two Columbus games “and not had much fun doing that,” he said with a laugh. “When they went up 2-0 (against the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday), I just turned it off. I like the idea of us going out and doing it ourselves.”

Montreal has been hanging by its fingernails to see whether the Canadiens would finally clinch a playoff spot. You want priorities in this province? With Canada’s April 28 federal election looming, a critical French-language televised party-leaders debate was scheduled for 8 p.m. Wednesday. It was rescheduled to 6 p.m. so it wouldn’t conflict with the Canadiens game.

Suzuki’s goal at 16:22 of the second period to snap a 1-1 tie shredded the anxiety that hung in Bell Centre like a heavy curtain. It wasn’t so much a cheer as an explosion of relief when he scored, the volume turned up when defenseman Kaiden Guhle drilled home his second of the night 2:26 later.

Late, brilliant Montreal hockey writer Red Fisher would likely have spoken of Wednesday’s Canadiens with two of his classic phrases: “tight-collar time,” the home team playing “don't-give-an-inch hockey, but if you must, make sure it's only an inch.”

The game was every bit that until the Canadiens scored twice deep in the second, then again when the Hurricanes’ Tyson Jost made it 3-2 at 14:10 of the third and made a hard push to the end until Jake Evans’ empty-net insurance goal at 18:05.

With a minute to go, Canadiens fans rose in a tumultuous standing ovation, embracing the victory and the Fan Appreciation Night ceremony that was to come.

That event included the annual “Jerseys Off Our Backs” ceremony, randomly chosen fans invited onto the ice to receive just-worn sweaters from players.

The highlight was an exchange between fan Lucie Lachance and forward Brendan Gallagher. Lachance had won Gallagher’s “Hockey Fights Cancer” jersey a few years ago at auction, and on Wednesday she returned it to the player in honor of his mother, Della, who died of brain cancer last month, receiving another Gallagher jersey in exchange.

Drinking it all in was veteran defenseman Mike Matheson, who was traded to his hometown team on July 16, 2022, from the Pittsburgh Penguins with a 2023 fourth-round draft pick in exchange for Jeff Petry and Ryan Poehling.

“I don’t know if it’s completely set in,” Matheson said. “When I think of coming to this arena as a kid… I got to go to one playoff game growing up and I remember it was absolutely insane. When I was traded here, the team was in a different spot. I just dreamed of having this chance to play for the Canadiens in the playoffs.”

For Matheson, qualifying for the postseason now is also a thank-you to fans who have been with this team through the leaner times the past few seasons.

“This makes me think back even to last year, coming down the stretch, when technically we had nothing to play for and our fans were still here,” he said. “I think that’s when it’s hardest to be a fan, to still show up. There were games when we were down 4-0 at the start of the second period and they were cheering us on.

“As exciting as this is tonight, I feel it’s almost a thank-you to fans for all of that, and it feels really good to be able to give it back to them and have this exciting time.”

Their most recent 10 trips to the playoffs, not including the 2019-20 COVID “bubble” season, the Canadiens have clinched their postseason spot seven times at home. On Wednesday, they were playing on the April 16 anniversary of their eighth and ninth of 24 Stanley Cup championships, captured on the home ice of the Montreal Forum. Both were Game 5 wins against the visiting Boston Bruins, in 1953 and 1957.

Previous championships weren’t on anyone’s mind Wednesday, the dressing room a rowdy celebration before the doors opened to reporters.

“To me this means a lot,” Suzuki said. “Since we started this rebuild, we’ve had some hard days. For our group to come together like this and put together this effort and make the playoffs when a lot of people doubted us, I’m very impressed and proud of the guys in the room.

“The fans have been with us all season. There wasn’t a lot of hope and expectation for our group coming into this year, except from in this room. The fans really kept us going when we were playing well and playing bad.

“They showed up tonight, the last couple of warmups have been full, and the starts of the game through the game they’ve proven that they’re the best fans in the League for a reason. They’ve really helped us.”