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Montreal Canadiens right wing Cole Caufield, right, skates out of the zone during the second period in Game 7 of a second-round NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoff series against the Buffalo Sabres Monday, May 18, 2026, in Buffalo, N.Y.<\/p>\n
Jeffrey T. Barnes\/AP Photo\/Jeffrey T. Barnes<\/p>\n
Buffalo Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin (26) celebrates after his goal during the third period in Game 7 of a second-round NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoff series against the Montreal Canadiens, Monday, May 18, 2026, in Buffalo, N.Y.<\/p>\n
Jeffrey T. Barnes\/AP Photo\/Jeffrey T. Barnes<\/p>\n
Montreal Canadiens defenseman Alexandre Carrier (45) blocks a shot by Buffalo Sabres left wing Jason Zucker (17) in front of Canadiens goaltender Jakub Dobes (75) during the first period in Game 7 of a second-round NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoff series Monday, May 18, 2026, in Buffalo, N.Y.<\/p>\n
Jeffrey T. Barnes\/AP Photo\/Jeffrey T. Barnes<\/p>\n
Montreal Canadiens right wing Zachary Bolduc, right, celebrates after his goal with defenseman Mike Matheson (8) during the first period in Game 7 of a second-round NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoff series against the Buffalo Sabres, Monday, May 18, 2026, in Buffalo, N.Y.<\/p>\n
Jeffrey T. Barnes\/AP Photo\/Jeffrey T. Barnes<\/p>\n
Montreal Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis shakes hands with Montreal Canadiens center Alex Newhook (15) following the overtime period in Game 7 of a second-round NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoff series against the Buffalo Sabres, Monday, May 18, 2026, in Buffalo, N.Y.<\/p>\n
Jeffrey T. Barnes\/AP Photo\/Jeffrey T. Barnes<\/p>\n
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) \u2014 First, Tampa Bay. Now Buffalo. Montreal Canadiens forward Alex Newhook keeps coming up big in Game 7s.<\/p>\n
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The 25-year-old scored his second seventh-game, series-clincher of the playoffs \u2014 this time 11:22 into overtime \u2014 in the a 3-2 win over the Sabres on Monday night.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a crazy feeling,\u201d Newhook said. \u201cIt\u2019s fun. It\u2019s why you play the game. I think we played well enough to win, so we\u2019re looking forward now.\u201d<\/p>\n
After Buffalo\u2019s Tage Thompson and captain Rasmus Dahlin misplayed the puck at Montreal\u2019s blue line, defenseman Alexandre Carrier drove up the right wing before sending a cross-ice pass, hitting Newhook in stride entering the Buffalo zone.<\/p>\n
Just before reaching the top of the left circle, and with linemate Jake Evans flashing in front of goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, Newhook snapped a shot just inside the far right post. It was his team-leading seventh goal of the postseason and followed his behind-the-net goal<\/a> with 8:53 left in regulation that broke a 1-1 tie in Montreal\u2019s 2-1 win in Game 7 of its first-round series at Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n Make the Times Union a Preferred Source on Google to see more of our journalism when you search.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI wasn\u2019t sure if Jake touched it, so I kind of looked at him to see if he was going to celebrate or not,\u201d Newhook said. “Great to see you find the back of the net. And there\u2019s no better feeling celebrating with your teammates after a win like that.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Newhook is now among only 14 NHL players with two career game-winning goals in Game 7, with Boston\u2019s Nathan Horton (2011) the only other one to do so in a single postseason.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m so happy for him,\u201d Canadiens goalie Jakub Dobes said, noting Newhook missed three months of the season with a broken ankle. \u201cHe deserves it. He deserve all, everything that is happening to him. … I mean, what a hell of a player.\u201d<\/p>\n Montreal won despite squandering a 2-0 first-period lead, with Dahlin forcing overtime by scoring 6:27 into the third period. And they improved to 17-9 in Game 7s, passing Boston for most seventh-game victories in the NHL playoffs.<\/p>\n The Canadiens advance to the Eastern Conference finals, where they\u2019ll face the well-rested Hurricanes in a series set to open at Carolina on Thursday. The Hurricanes have swept each of their first two series, and been off since a 3-2 overtime win against Philadelphia on May 9.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Carolina\u2019s 11-day break between playoffs games is the longest in NHL history.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s going to be important to take a second and enjoy this but turn the page pretty quickly,\u201d said Mike Matheson. \u201cThey\u2019ve had a lot of time off, a lot of time to prepare, so we\u2019re going to have to flip that switch very quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n Phillip Danault and Zachary Bolduc also scored for the Canadiens. Dobes finished with 37 saves in bouncing back after allowing six goals on 33 shots in an 8-3 loss in Game 6 on Saturday.<\/p>\n Montreal has not lost consecutive games since mid-March, while Dobes improved to 6-0 this postseason when coming off a loss.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Jordan Greenway also scored for Buffalo, while Luukkonen finished with 22 saves.<\/p>\n \u201cIt hurts. I told the teams, it hurts,\u201d coach Lindy Ruff said. \u201cThe pain will go away. But I won\u2019t let this one game define the season we had. I told the players how proud I was of them.\u201d<\/p>\n Buffalo dropped to 1-7 in Game 7, including 1-3 in overtime.<\/p>\n The Sabres enter their offseason following a breakout year in which they won their first Atlantic Division title and ended an NHL-record 14-season playoff drought. Buffalo\u2019s turnaround began in early December, when the team went from last in the East standings to finish second by going 39-9-5 over its final 53 games.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The Sabres\u2019 first-round win over Boston was their first since 2007, and the team returns a young and talented group that reflects a promising future in Buffalo.<\/p>\n The Canadiens advance to the NHL\u2019s semifinal round for the first time since facing Vegas in the COVID-altered 2021 playoffs, in which Montreal eventually lost the Stanley Cup Final in five games to Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n Montreal has essentially been rebuilt since, and continue their upward trajectory a year after being eliminated in the first round by Washington.<\/p>\n Newhook is part of the new-look Canadiens. He\u2019s in his second season in Montreal after winning the Stanley Cup with the 2022 Colorado Avalanche.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re a confident group,\u201d Newhook said. \u201cWe\u2019ve added some pieces, and I think everyone\u2019s kind of come together to play together and play their role to the best of their ability this far in playoffs. We\u2019ve got to keep it rolling.\u201d<\/p>\n This is the first playoff meeting between the two teams since Carolina beat Montreal in six games of a 2006 first-round series. The Hurricanes also beat Montreal in 2002, after going 0-5 against the Canadiens when the franchise was based in Hartford, Connecticut.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n AP NHL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/stanley-cup and <\/a>https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nhl<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Montreal Canadiens right wing Cole Caufield, right, skates out of the zone during the second period in Game…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":578498,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[377],"tags":[633,1603,1107,64531,5,639,909,11074,6422,1941,15069,10617,3494,1808,3492,47087,10616,52361,10019,4011,1712,7800,1484],"class_list":["post-578497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hockey","tag-alex-newhook","tag-alexandre-carrier","tag-buffalo","tag-canadiens-sabres-playoffs-score","tag-hockey","tag-jake-evans","tag-jakub-dobes","tag-jordan-greenway","tag-lindy-ruff","tag-michael-matheson","tag-nathan-horton","tag-package-100024-ap-online","tag-package-100502-member-choice-sports-option","tag-phillip-danault","tag-product-30599-ap-sports-news-s-wire-only","tag-product-32550-ap-online-hockey-game-stories","tag-product-32562-ap-online-other-sports-news","tag-product-40803-ap-new-york-state-sports-only","tag-product-40804-ap-north-carolina-sports-only","tag-rasmus-dahlin","tag-tage-thompson","tag-ukko-pekka-luukkonen","tag-zachary-bolduc"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}