MONTREAL — The Islanders played far from crisp hockey. And it cost them in a had-to-have game.
The undermanned Canadiens rallied for a 4-3 overtime win on Saturday afternoon at Bell Centre.
The Islanders (27-23-6) lost their second straight. Defenseman Mike Matheson scored the winner.
Semyon Varlamov made 27 saves for the Islanders.
The Canadiens (21-27-4), who got 27 saves from Sam Montembeault, were playing their first game in 11 days after their All-Star break/bye week.
Former Canadiens defenseman Alexander Romanov, playing his first game back at Bell Centre since his draft-day trade to the Islanders for the 13th overall pick, set up a Islanders’ go-ahead goal at 10:54 of the third. Romanov, whose return was marked with a first-period video tribute, took a hard shot from the left point that Matt Martin deflected.
But Kirby Dach tipped defenseman Matheson’s shot to tie it at 3 at 16:44 of the third period.
The Islanders were outplayed in the second period but took a 2-1 lead on their first power play at 19:55 as Bo Horvat, extending his goal streak to three games, threw the puck at the net from the left and it deflected in off the inside of Montembeault’s pad.
The Canadiens, pressuring to start the third period, tied it at 2 at 4:02 as Justin Barron’s wrist shot from the high slot marked not only his first goal of the season but the first by a Canadiens defenseman in 2023.
The Islanders, continuing their struggles in defensive zone coverage and exiting their own zone from Thursday night’s 6-5 loss to the Canucks at UBS Arena, fell behind 1-0 as Nick Suzuki wound up open to Varlamov’s right at 12:57 of the first period for Rafael Harvey-Pinard’s quick feed. Anders Lee had hit the crossbar on the Islanders’ previous rush.
But Brock Nelson, extending his career-high point streak to 10 games, deflected defenseman Noah Dobson’s blue-line feed to tie it at 1 at 15:01 of the first period.
Before Horvat’s late power-play goal, the most notable stretch of the second period came as Nelson’s line with Lee and Kyle Palmieri and defensemen Adam Pelech and Ryan Pulock were pinned in their own zone midway through. Palmieri’s shift lasted two minutes, 25 seconds, Nelson and Lee were on the ice for 2:29 and Pelech and Pulock’s shift clocked in at 2:39. The Canadiens got two shots on net, had two shots blocked and missed the net on another attempt against the gassed defenders.
