MONTREAL — Cole Caufield arrived for his on-air interview between the second and third periods Tuesday night understanding the exact situation in which his Montreal Canadiens found themselves. He’d lived it Saturday night in Boston.
A Caulfield goal had the Canadiens up one against the Vegas Golden Knights, just as they were in Boston against the Bruins. They had 20 minutes ahead of them to close out a win, just as they did in Boston.
The failure to do that in Boston weighed heavily on Caufield after two days spent talking about it, to the extent that he told TSN’s Kenzie Lalonde that Tuesday’s third period was the “biggest period of the year.”
It underlined where the Canadiens are in their development as a competitive team, a status quite new to this group that dates back to last year’s 4 Nations Face-Off. Coming into this season, the young Canadiens had led entering the third period once every 3.45 games under coach Martin St. Louis. This season, they have led after 40 minutes once every 2.52 games, and had a 15-3-2 record in that situation entering the third period Tuesday night.
There were lessons that needed to be learned from the experience in Boston that were driven home at practice and applied one game later.
The Canadiens won the game 3-2 in overtime on a goal by Jake Evans. They got an outstanding 32-save performance from rookie Jakub Dobeš, who provided something Sam Montembeault did not in the loss in Boston.
Now, they need to apply those lessons with consistency, and it says something about Evans that even after he texted his wife about experiencing “a top moment” in his career, he still recognized some imperfections in how the Canadiens handled the third period.
“There’s still a lot to work on, but I don’t think a lot of teams have this magic formula of holding leads,” Evans said. “It’s hard in this league. When you’re up a goal, you don’t want to make the mistake to give them that chance. And the other side of it is when you’re down a goal, you’re a little more fearless and a little more aggressive. That can open things up, and I feel like that’s in all sports and with a lot of teams.”
What is there to work on?
“There’s just moments in third periods when you have the lead that you have to just realize that’s not the smart play,” he said, “and there’s safer plays and ways of possessing pucks and keeping leads and staying out of your d-zone.”
Two of those moments jumped out Tuesday, largely based on things St. Louis had said coming off the game in Boston.
One came on an offensive-zone draw won by Phillip Danault with 6:15 left in the third and the Canadiens still up 2-1. Danault snapped it right back to Kaiden Guhle at the blue line and as a mass of humanity formed in front of the Vegas net, Guhle attempted a shot that quickly deflected back toward the Canadiens’ zone.
“(Defencemen), you can’t get your shots blocked up a goal,” St. Louis said Monday after practice. “You’ve just got to miss the guy. It doesn’t have to be on net, but you’ve got to miss the guy. These are things that just raise the percentages into being able to close the game. But it’s not one action. To me, it’s just a mindset that should influence the action.”
Not long after that, Caufield got the puck in the neutral zone with a little more than three minutes left in regulation. He had been on the ice for 35 seconds, and in order to get a change, flipped the puck into the Vegas zone. There was no pressure and he had time and space. He could have skated the puck in and allowed the Canadiens to play in the offensive zone.
But Caufield felt it was time to get a change, which is not something he can be criticized for. It was a good intention in what was, after all, the biggest period of the year.
And yet, as good as Caufield’s intentions were, St. Louis also addressed such situations after practice Monday.
“In the third period, the team knows we want a deep game,” he said. “But it doesn’t mean we don’t possess across the line. You’ve got to keep playing. It doesn’t mean that, ‘Oh, I’ve gained the red, I’ve got to dump it in.’ What if there’s no pressure on you? You’ve got to keep playing. That action might happen in another 30 feet, where now you’re going to get contested. That’s ok, you’ve skated 30 more feet, well guess what? Now your buddy’s going to support you in 30 more feet, and now we’ll put a good puck and now we’ll play in there. We’ve just got to make the other team defend more, and we’re capable of doing that.”
Caufield reached the Canadiens bench with 3:18 left in regulation. Again, the intention behind his decision to flip the puck deep and go for a change was impeccable, but there was another option there that might have allowed the Canadiens to possess the puck a bit longer.
Instead, the Golden Knights collected the puck and Pavel Dorofeyev scored to tie the game 10 seconds after Caufield reached the bench.
Sometimes, best intentions can go awry. And that is part of learning.
“I think it’s part of our young team’s development to learn to play in these games, and we have great opportunities to keep learning because we find ourselves in those situations more than ever,” St. Louis said. “I think that’s where we’re at in our process, to learn to play in those third periods. I thought tonight, we improved compared to the Boston game, with nothing guaranteed obviously, we still gave up a second goal. But I thought our intentions were way better. I think we managed the puck way better. It’s game by game, but can we keep improving in that department?
“But the fact that we have these opportunities is really good for our young team.”
Caufield is accustomed to being the overtime hero for the Canadiens. He’s the all-time franchise leader in overtime goals. Evans’ goal was the first of his career in overtime, and the first one off the bench to congratulate him was Caufield, who looked as happy as if had he scored himself.
!!!#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/f5uOD7AdmX
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) January 28, 2026
This was an important win. This was an important lesson. And as imperfect as it was, it was the biggest third period of the year.
“It’s obviously relieving,” Caufield said. “There were times the past couple of games where we had opportunities to extend leads or find a way to shut it down. I thought tonight, regardless that they scored, I thought we played pretty well five-on-five. Just another game that we deserved to win.”
Perfection is, St. Louis loves to say, unattainable, but something worth striving for. This game felt like a step toward that goal. The third period could have been better, the Canadiens could have won this game in regulation — something Dobeš gave them every opportunity to do — but what is more important is that when this team reaches its apex, when these things really matter, a third period like Tuesday night will be remembered.