MONTREAL — Cole Caufield tied it with 1.9 seconds remaining in regulation for the Montreal Canadiens, who rallied for a 5-4 shootout win against the Philadelphia Flyers at the Bell Center on Saturday.
Caufield scored his second of the game on a one-timer from the left circle Jake Allen pulled for the extra skater.
“In those situations, you kind of make reads and hope for the best,” Caufield said.
Nick Suzuki had two assists and scored the only goal in the shootout for Montreal (9-8-1), which had lost two straight. Allen made 25 saves.
“Cole came up huge at the end,” Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher said. “That’s a big-time goal, and it’s fun. I’ve been in this building a long time and I’ve heard it pretty loud, but that was up there. It was a fun night.”
Video: PHI@MTL: Caufield scores 2nd goal of game in 3rd
Owen Tippett scored twice, Travis Sanheim had a goal and an assist, and Carter Hart made 28 saves for Philadelphia (7-7-4), which has lost six in a row (0-4-2).
“I thought we played hard,” Flyers coach John Tortorella said. “I thought we had a ton of good hockey. We just don’t know how to manage a game. We have so much to learn in momentums. I mean, total panic when we had the puck trying to end the game. (It’s ) certainly not through lack of trying.”
Sanheim scored 39 seconds into the first period to give Philadelphia a 1-0 lead. He drove to the net and lifted a shot over Allen’s right shoulder from a pass Scott Laughton from behind the net.
Tippett made it 2-0 at 2:55, using Joel Edmundson as a screen and scoring glove side from above the right circle.
Christian Dvorak got Montreal to within 2-1 at 4:07 when he jammed in a loose puck near the right post, and Caufield tied it 2-2 at 17:49 with a one-timer under Hart’s blocker from the left circle during a 5- on-3 power play.
Mike Mathesonwho was making his Canadiens debut, made it 3-2 at 11:55 of the second period when he scored from the high slot off a no-look backhand pass from Suzuki.
Matheson, who was minus-2 after his first two shifts, missed the first 17 games because of a strained abdominal muscle. The Pointe-Claire, Quebec, native was acquired from the Pittsburgh Penguins for defenseman Jeff Petry and forward Ryan Poehling on July 16.
“It’s special for sure, a moment I’m not going to forget for a long time,” Matheson said.
Video: PHI@MTL: Suzuki, Allen combine for win in shootout
Tippett tied it 3-3 at 15:50, shooting directly off a face-off in the right circle.
“It’s not very often you get it clean like that, and I think it just caught (Allen) a bit,” Tippett said.
Kevin Hayes put Philadelphia back in front 4-3 at 8:17 of the third period with a quick shot from above the left circle after Nick Seeler‘s initial chance was blocked.
“I thought we did some good things,” Hayes said. “I thought our team worked very hard tonight, but it’s tough when you lose a couple of games in a row and then they score with one second left. It’s easy to say things aren’t going our way, but we’ve just got to keep working hard, and things turn around.”
NOTES: Hayes has six points (three goals, three assists) during a five-game point streak. … Laughton had to be helped off the ice at 1:47 of the third after he was checked into the boards by a Montreal defenseman. Kaiden Guhle. Tortorella did not have an update postgame. … The Flyers played without a forward Travis Konecny, who returned to Philadelphia after he sustained an upper-body injury during a 4-1 loss at the Boston Bruins on Thursday. … Matheson is the fifth defenseman to score in his Canadiens debut, joining Scott Lachance (March 11, 1999), Jyrki Lumme (Nov. 26, 1988), Bill MacKenzie (Dec. 5, 1936) and Howard McNamara (Dec. 24, 1919).
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