BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Perhaps Alex Newhook should be renamed "Mr. Game 7."
The Montreal Canadiens winger scored the overtime winner against the Buffalo Sabres on Monday in Game 7 of this Eastern Conference semifinal series, lifting his club to a 3-2 victory and a ticket to the Eastern Conference final against the Carolina Hurricanes. It was the second straight series that Newhook ended a Game 7 for the Canadiens, after pocketing the decisive marker in the final chapter of their first-round series against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Newhook is now the fourth Montreal player to score a Game 7 overtime winner and the first to do so on the road.
"It's a crazy feeling," Newhook said. "Lot of emotion. It was a war all series long, and for it to go to Game 7 overtime ... that's your opportunity, and it sometimes takes one shot. See it cross the line and see if find the back of the net, it's a great feeling. It took everything we had to get through this series."
Newhook admitted he thought perhaps teammate Jake Evans had tipped his shot in -- and waited to see if Evans would celebrate -- but soon realized it was his goal on the board that pushed Montreal onto the next round. Still, Newhook felt it was a combined effort that allowed the Canadiens to reach their second conference finals since making a Stanley Cup Final appearance in the pandemic-shortened 2021 campaign.
"I think we have all the pieces," Newhook said. "We are a great team that plays with a lot of pace. In the playoffs, you need to have depth and get something from everyone in the lineup, and we have gotten that. We are confident, and we know what we are capable of."
The Canadiens were in control early on Monday, jumping out to a 2-0 lead in the first period off goals from Phillip Danault and Zack Bolduc -- courtesy of a beautiful pass from Nick Suzuki -- on the power play. Buffalo's Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen didn't have much chance to stop Danault's marker and was fooled by Bolduc's perfectly placed shot off the crossbar, but the Sabres netminder settled in from there to make the night interesting for Jakub Dobes at the other end.
Buffalo wasn't about to go quietly.
The Sabres went into Game 7 with two multigoal comebacks in the postseason. (Consider that the other 15 playoff teams had combined for four.) And the Sabres again did what they do best: keeping the pressure on through the second period, until Mattias Samuelsson finally got through Dobes to cut Montreal's lead in half. Now trailing 2-1 going into the third, it was all Buffalo from the outset. And when Owen Power fed Rasmus Dahlin an impeccably placed puck, the Sabres captain did not miss tapping it into Dobes' net to tie the score 2-2 and blow the roof off Keybank Center.
"They really took it to us in the second and third," said Suzuki, Montreal's captain. "Once the game was tied, we actually started to play better and not just protect the lead anymore. Can't let the moment get too big. It's just another hockey game, and we had to do the things that make us successful."
That momentum from the Sabres took Game 7 to overtime but didn't put Buffalo over the top. Past the halfway point of the extra frame, it was Newhook beating Luukkonen for his seventh goal of the playoffs and cementing his status as the Canadiens' encore Game 7 savior.
Newhook admitted it was a "different" experience scoring this game winner as opposed to the one over Tampa Bay, knowing how quickly his team will have to reset to face its next opponent.
He wasn't the only stellar contributor for the road team in Game 7. Dobes made an individual comeback of his own. The Montreal netminder foundered in Game 6, allowing six goals and getting the hook in Montreal's 8-3 loss. But Dobes was excellent Monday -- posting a .949 save percentage -- and he has been rock solid in Game 7s, making 65 saves on 68 shots across both series. Dobes is now 6-0 following a loss in the playoffs while registering a .942 save percentage and a 1.77 goals-against average.
And apparently his first yank of this postseason had a lasting impact on Dobes that he brought into Game 7.
"Me getting pulled at home was a wake-up call," Dobes said. "I took it personally. I wasn't happy."
He and the Canadiens were in a tough spot again sitting in the dressing room tied 2-2 after regulation, but they were determined not to let that situation define what has been a remarkable run through the spring. And when the Buffalo crowd tried to throw Dobes off, it only served to fuel his fire to put the home team out to pasture.
It wasn't like Dobes and the Canadiens had anything to save it for, anyway. Forward Josh Anderson credited the team's netminder with always finding a way to turn up at the critical moments, and Monday's Game 7 was another example of Dobes making "huge saves" -- such as the one on Buffalo star Tage Thompson in the third -- that pushed Montreal over the edge.
"I just tried to tell myself that you just have to give everything you have," Dobes said. "There's nothing in the tank; it has to go all out. You tell yourself [in overtime] that the puck isn't going into the net, and you trick your brain. I would do anything it takes to get the W."
The Canadiens' victory was a culmination of multiple factors in Anderson's mind: how they had preserved through a recent rebuild and grown from playoff experiences past and present to keep finding that proverbial next level.
"We have said for a long time that we knew something was brewing here the last few years," Anderson said. "We've worked hard to build what we have here. Sometimes, you have to go through those growing pains to be successful. We are not done yet."
Awaiting the Canadiens is a Carolina team that is a perfect 8-0 in the playoffs and has been idle since sweeping the Philadelphia Flyers out of the postseason on May 9.
Game 1 of the Eastern Conference final is set for Thursday at 8 p.m. ET in Raleigh, North Carolina.