The Montreal Canadiens have taken a two games to one series lead in the 2021 Stanley Cup semifinals. On Friday from the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Josh Anderson of Burlington, Ontario scored his first National Hockey League playoff overtime winner as the Canadiens defeated the Vegas Golden Knights 3-2 in game three of the best-out-of-seven series.
Anderson scored from Paul Byron of Ottawa, Ontario and Jesperi Kotkaniemi at 12:53 of the first overtime period. It was Anderson’s second goal of the game as he also scored an amazing unassisted marker with one minute and 55 seconds left in regulation time. Anderson received a Christmas present from Golden Knights goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, who came out of his net, misplayed the puck, and gave the biscuit right to Anderson.
This was Anderson’s first multi-goal game in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Anderson has six goals and five assists for 11 points in 35 career postseason games. Interestingly, Anderson scored the first Canadiens’ goal of the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs in a 2-1 Montreal win over the Toronto Maple Leafs in game one of the North Division semifinals on May 20, and went 12 games without picking up a single point before his two goals on Friday.
The Canadiens won on Friday without their head coach, Dominique Ducharme of Notre-Dame-des-Prairies, Quebec, who has coronavirus. Luke Richardson of Ottawa, Ontario is Ducharme’s interim replacement.
