MONTREAL (AP) — Patrik Laine scored in his highly anticipated Montreal debut, Nick Suzuki scored in overtime, and the Canadiens beat the New York Islanders 2-1 on Tuesday night.
Laine, playing his first regular-season game in nearly a year, opened the scoring on the power play 7:23 into the second period.
Suzuki scored at 2:39 of overtime, following up his own rebound. Sam Montembeault stopped 30 shots.
Anders Lee scored for New York, which lost for the fourth time in its last five games. Ilya Sorokin made 25 saves.
Laine missed the first 24 games of the regular season after sustaining a left knee sprain during preseason play against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sept. 28.
Laine, who the Canadiens acquired before the season, hadn’t played since last Dec. 14 with the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Takeaways
Islanders: The Islanders continued to struggle with the man advantage, going 0 for 3. New York entered the game with the league’s second-worst power play at 12.9 percent.
Canadiens: Laine finished with one goal, two shots and two hits in 17 minutes, 27 seconds. He skated on the Canadiens’ second line with Kirby Dach and Juraj Slafkovsky and started on Montreal’s top power-play unit, which went 1 for 2.
Key moment
Laine received the puck and had all the time in the world to turn and pick his spot on Sorokin. He pumped his fists as teammates swarmed him.
Key stat
355 — The number of days since Laine’s last regular-season game. Laine scored a goal against the Maple Leafs but broke his clavicle. He later entered the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program on Jan. 28 to prioritize his mental health and was cleared to return on July 26, three weeks before his trade to Montreal.
Up next
The Canadiens play host to the Nashville Predators on Thursday night and the Islanders return home to play the Seattle Kraken.
