Newhook Does It Again — Canadiens Stun Sabres in OT Game 7

Buffalo had this one. Or at least, they had a version of this one — the version where you tie a Game 7 in the third period after trailing the entire night and ride a tidal wave of momentum into overtime.

The Canadiens, instead, did what they have been doing all postseason: gave the puck to Alex Newhook in overtime and let him end it. Montreal beat Buffalo 3-2 to advance to the Eastern Conference Final, where the undefeated Carolina Hurricanes are waiting.

Newhook's second Game 7-winner of the postseason

Alex Newhook is now the only player in the 2026 playoffs to score the series-clinching goal in overtime of two different Game 7s. That is not a stat that comes up often. Last round it was the dramatic one. This one was the structural one — a clean shot past the midpoint of overtime that just barely had enough.

He is becoming the kind of player Montreal has needed for years. Not the franchise face, not the franchise center — but the closer. The guy whose number you trust when the season is one mistake from over.

Montreal grabbed the game in the first period

The Canadiens did not back into this win. They controlled the opening period from puck drop. Phillip Danault opened the scoring, and then Zack Bolduc, off a Nick Suzuki feed, made it 2-0. Both goals came inside the first frame. By the first intermission, Buffalo was already playing from behind in the most important game of their season.

That is the part Sabres fans will replay all summer. Game 7 at home. Stanley Cup window cracked open for the first time in over a decade. Down 2-0 before they had a single quality shift.

The Sabres comeback was real, and short

Mattias Samuelsson cut the lead to 2-1 in the second. Then Rasmus Dahlin, set up by Owen Power, tied it 2-2 in the third. For a brief stretch between that goal and overtime, Buffalo was the team carrying the play. Tage Thompson had multiple looks. The KeyBank crowd was getting Stanley Cup-loud.

And then Jakub Dobes happened.

Dobes was the difference

The Canadiens benched Jakub Dobes in Game 6. They put him back in for Game 7 because they did not have a better answer. He responded with a .949 save percentage — the line of a goaltender who absorbed every Buffalo push and made sure the building never tilted.

Dobes is now 6-0 with a 1.77 GAA following playoff losses. That is the stat that will be quoted for the rest of his career, regardless of where this run ends. Goaltenders who win after losses are the only goaltenders who win series. That is the math.

What Buffalo just lost

This was the year the Sabres ended their playoff drought. They beat the Bruins in the first round. They had home ice in Game 7. They had Tage Thompson, Dahlin, and Power all healthy and producing. It is the closest Buffalo has been to a meaningful series win in a generation.

And then they ran into Montreal's third-line center scoring his second Game 7 OT winner of the same postseason.

That is hockey. Sometimes the team that built better gets beat by the team whose closer happens to be unconscious at the exact moment that matters.

Carolina is the next test, and it is brutal

The Hurricanes are 8-0 in the 2026 playoffs. Eight straight wins. Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final is Thursday in Raleigh.

Montreal is going to need Dobes to keep playing the way he played in Game 7. They are going to need Newhook to keep being the closer. And they are going to need to score in the first period, because Carolina, more than any team left, plays from ahead on purpose.

The Bottom Line

The Canadiens are four wins from the Stanley Cup Final, and they are getting there on a closer-by-committee model — Dobes in net when it matters, Newhook on the ice in overtime, and a top six that scores just enough in the first 20 minutes. It is not the flashiest formula in the bracket. But it has now beaten two Game 7s in overtime, and it is exactly the kind of formula that wins long playoff runs.