Chaos at the Bell Centre: two controversies leave fans in shock
Martin St-Louis just pulled off the gutsiest coach's challenge of Montreal's playoff run, wiping a Buffalo goal off the board on Jakub Dobes in Game 4 Tuesday night.
The Canadiens trailed 1-0 in the first period when the Sabres appeared to push the lead to 2-0 with 11:56 left on the clock.
Then the review started. And it kept going.
Officials huddled at the timekeeper's bench for roughly five minutes trying to determine whether the puck had fully crossed the line under Dobes' glove.
They ruled it a goal.
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That's when St-Louis didn't blink. He threw the challenge flag on goaltender interference, betting his timeout that Sabres forward Jack Quinn's stick had clipped Dobes' glove on the follow-through.
Sabres lead cut as Dobes survives a five-minute storm
The replay backed him up. Officials reversed the call, wiped the goal, and Montreal escaped down 1-0 instead of 2-0 in a series they lead 2-1.
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That's a swing you can feel from the press box. One soft minute of hockey could have buried this team. Instead, the Bell Centre exhaled.
Dobes has been the story of this series anyway. The 24-year-old Czech sits at a .919 save percentage across 10 playoff appearances after posting a .901 mark in 43 regular-season games.
The bench coach is rolling with the kid for a reason, and tonight he just bought him another life.
Buffalo had momentum, a 1-0 lead, and what felt like a back-breaker. Five minutes of dead-ice tension. Then nothing.
For a Sabres group that's already dropped back-to-back games by a combined 11-3, watching a confirmed goal vanish off the scoreboard is the kind of moment that warps a road team's confidence.
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Montreal opened this series with a 4-2 loss in Buffalo before storming back with 5-1 and 6-2 wins to flip home-ice momentum.
Win tonight, and the Habs head to Buffalo with a chance to close it out Thursday. Lose, and the whole thing resets to a coin flip.
Following this strange situation, Alex Newhook scored and the score is 1-1 as we are typing these words.
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YESTERDAY
MAY 12, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Pavel Dorofeyev | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Tomas Hertl | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Tage Thompson | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Josh Doan | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Jack Eichel | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Cutter Gauthier | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Mason McTavish | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Zach Benson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Cole Caufield | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Alex Newhook | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Mattias Samuelsson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Beckett Sennecke | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Olen Zellweger | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Rasmus Andersson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Rasmus Dahlin | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Ivan Demidov | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jake Evans | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Lane Hutson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Josh Norris | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Brandon Saad | - | 1 | 1 | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||