San Jose Sharks Macklin Celebrini (71) celebrates his goal over Les Montreal Canadiens with teammates Igor Chernyshov (92), Nolan Allan (5), and Will Smith (2) during the first period at the Belle Centre in Montreal on Tue Oct 20, 2026 (Canadian Press photo via AP)
By Mary Walsh
The San Jose Sharks defeated the Montreal Canadiens 4-3 in overtime on Tuesday. Macklin Celebrini, Michael Misa and Tyler Toffoli scored for the Sharks. Alex Nedeljkovic made 31 saves for the win. Nick Suzuki, Juraj Slafkovský and Cole Caulfield scored for the Canadiens. Jakub Dobes made 26 saves in the loss.
The Sharks were down 3-1 at the start of the third period but recovered in the third to force overtime. After the game, Michael Misa talked about the late turn-around:
“I think we were just connected, playing desperate like especially with the puck in their zone, we were forechecking hard, playing through their… you know, they’ve got a lot of skilled D over there so you try to play through them and make them turn over pucks. And I thought we did a good job of that in the third.”
Macklin Celebrini scored the first goal of the game at 13:49 of the first period. Jake Evans had the puck along the boards in Montreal’s zone and Will Smith was pressuring him. He made a pass that Celebrini intercepted, leading to a snap shot from the slot. It was Celebrini’s fourth goal of the season.
Nick Suzuki tied the game at 16:38. Gathering up a stray puck in the neutral zone, Juraj Slafkovský carried the puck into the zone two-on-one with Suzuki. Slafkovský chose to pass and Suzuki scored from just inside the faceoff circle.
The first period shots were 12-10 Montreal. The Sharks took two penalties in the period, allowing one shot to the Montreal power play and mustering one short-handed shot.
Slafkovský made it 2-1 with a snap shot at 1:49. He carried the puck into the zone at speed, skated to the net and snapped it in. An assist went to Cole Caulfield.
Caulfield scored at 14:03 to make it 3-1. He caught Suzuki’s pass from behind the net to snap the puck into the net. Assists went to Suzuki and Phillip Danault.
The shots in the second period were 11-10 Montreal. The penalties were numerous but mostlly came from one scrum at 11:57. Four minors were handed out at that time, two to each team. The Sharks were the only team to be short-handed in the second with one penalty at 17:27.
Michael Misa started the comeback at 5:36 of the third period. Misa and Kiefer Sherwood drove the play out of the Sharks’ zone and carried the puck to the other end. Misa’s snap shot beat the goalie on the stick side.
There were three penalties handed out at 9:33 of the third, giving the Sharks a power play. Tyler Toffoli made good use of that and scored the tying goal at 11:09. Celebrini sold a slap shot and instead passed it to Toffoli in the middle for the shot. An assist also went to Jacob Trouba.
The shots in the third were 11-8 Canadiens.
Jakub Dobes was called for interfering with Collin Graf at 1:53 of overtime. At 2:13, Celebrini took his shot from above the faceoff dot off a pass from Ivar Stenberg. An assist also went to Will Smith.
The Sharks next play on Thursday at 4:00 PM PT in Ottawa against the Senators.
