Rekindled Maple Leafs-Canadiens rivalry starts in goal

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Jakub Dobes versus Dennis Hildeby doesn’t exactly have the Montreal-Toronto rivalry ring to it of Jacques Plante versus Johnny Bower.

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But goaltending was just one fun part of this new chapter in the NHL’s oldest feud. The 775th regular season meeting came down to a Saturday shootout, which ended in Montreal’s favour after the 2-1 tiebreaker at Scotiabank Arena. Entering the game, each team had one victory in the season series.

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“I know the history, I love being part of Saturday night hockey,” the Czechia-born Dobes said after holding Toronto to one short-handed breakaway goal by Scott Laughton and going 2-for-3 in the shootout, stopping William Nylander and John Tavares to preserve the win.

When not making 22 saves through regulation, the fifth-round draft from 2020, who was picked right before the Leafs took Russian Dmytriy Ovchinnikov, was fighting off invasive Leafs in his crease. He exchanged words and shoves with Laughton and Bobby McMann in securing his 10th win in 15 games.

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“He battles and he’s very demanding of himself,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. “He likes that stage, a Saturday in Toronto, I don’t think he gets intimidated by it.”

Dobes foiled Dakota Joshua on what would have been a go-ahead goal in the third period, though Hildeby had the bigger 33-save workload in his first of a possible three starts with Joseph Woll going on injured reserve earllier in the day.

Hildeby was at his best when stretching his 6-foot-7 hooves out and gloving Zachary Bolduc’s second-period breakaway.

“Dennis kept us in that game, gave us a chance to get points,” defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson said. “Last year he came in and had a chance to play, this year, he’s taken it to the next level.”

As lanky as he is, Hildeby was duped into opening up the five-hole on new Hab Alexandre Texier’s winner. While Texier wasn’t acquired for his extra-period skills, coach St. Louis did pencil him in when researching his 4-for-7 record in the shootout.

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“I went in and knew exactly what I was going to do,” Texier said. “I have a couple of more moves, but I’m obviously not going to do (the same one) every night.”

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Cole Caufield, who had Montreal’s opening goal on the power play and is up to 15 points in 19 career games against Toronto, said he was unaware his club came into SBA on a losing streak of 0-6-2. They had been outscored an average of four to 1.6 in that run.

“Maybe we’ll start a streak of our own now,” he suggested. ”It’s always cool to play here and I love playing these guys. They’ve been really good the last couple of years and definitely had our number in the past.

“We’re just trying to grow our game and this is a huge two points for us.”

The extra point moved Montreal three ahead of Toronto and the possibility of finishing ahead of it for the first time in a while. The season series concludes in March at the Bell Centre.

Lhornby@postmedia.com

X: @sunhornby

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