Samberg ends it after overtime: Jets erase 4-0 hole to beat Canadiens 4-5

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Forty-two saves, and it meant nothing. Jacob Fowler stopped 42 of the 47 shots Winnipeg threw at him, yet Montréal let a 4-0 lead dissolve into a 4-5 defeat after overtime at Bell Centre. The Canadiens were outshot 22-47 and still scored on half their power plays.

Owen Beck opened the scoring at minute 4, Florian Xhekaj with the assist, and Josh Anderson doubled it at 19 off Kaiden Guhle. Cole Caufield made it 3-0 at 24 through Juraj Slafkovský, with penalties stacking around him — Elias Salomonsson, Morgan Barron, Lane Hutson and Arber Xhekaj all served minors in the middle frame. Caufield struck again at 41, this time set up by Lane Hutson: 4-0, and the night looked settled.

Then period three broke. Eight suspensions fell in that stretch: Arber Xhekaj and Tyrel Bauer took five each at 51, Adam Lowry and Florian Xhekaj five more at 56, the latter adding a further two. Bauer made it 4-1 at 58 off Dylan DeMelo, Morgan Barron struck at 59 and Kyle Connor made it 4-3 at 59 off Mark Scheifele — three goals in the space of a minute on the clock. Montréal's power play had gone 2 for 4, Winnipeg's 1 for 5. None of it mattered soon.

Kyle Connor levelled it at 4-4 with his second in the extra frame, both goals off Scheifele, and Dylan Samberg settled it at 64 with Gabriel Vilardi providing: 4-5 after overtime.

The Scheifele-Connor axis produced both late goals — two assists for Scheifele, and DeMelo also collected two helpers while Bauer finished with a goal, an assist, five penalty minutes and a plus-2. Caufield's two goals went for nothing — four shots, a minus-1 — and Fowler's 42 saves became a footnote to the collapse. Florian Xhekaj assisted the opener, then sat nine minutes himself.

Two points left Montreal on 47 shots' worth of pressure. Montréal built the 4-0 lead; Winnipeg simply refused to stop shooting.