The Habs played themselves into a 3-1 series deficit with a pair of tough outings earlier in the week but managed to pick up two critical overtime victories to keep their series against Toronto alive with Game 7 going on Monday.

The Habs got off to a strong start in front of fans for the first time but it took until the third to open up the scoring. Two power play goals were erased by Toronto with the game going to overtime where Montreal was once again victorious with Jesperi Kotkaniemi picking up the winner to force Game 7 on Monday.

This evening, the first game of the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs begins. Our HabsWorld writers provide their predictions on the series starting this weekend to see who will advance on to the next round.

Our latest podcast is now available featuring plenty of discussion of Montreal’s series against Toronto so far including some odd coaching decisions, the future of Marc Bergevin with the Habs, and much more.

The Habs came out strong and played physical enough to keep the Leafs from being too comfortable. Carey Price saved the team on numerous chances and the team finally supported him with some goals with Nick Suzuki potting the overtime winner in a 4-3 victory.

With Montreal averaging a mere one goal per game in the playoffs, a lot of attention has been given to their lack of capable scorers as the primary cause for their struggles. I think the root cause of their problems isn’t that but rather a lack of playmaking.

Same recipe, same disaster. The Habs couldn’t score with only one line generating offence because of an obsession with shutting down Matthews instead of trying to win. Carey Price stood on his head again but can’t do it by himself. The end result was the Habs losing 4-0 on Tuesday night and they now trail 3-1 in the series.

With the last change on Monday night, Dominique Ducharme created a defensive line and played them until the Habs were behind and running out of time to get back in the game. The Leafs defended well in the third and that was the story as the Habs coached themselves to a 2-1 series deficit, losing the game by that same score.

The Habs opened up their first-round series against Toronto this past week and while the second game was far from pretty, they still managed to pick up an important split on the road.

The Habs looked to come out of Toronto with both games to start their playoff series. However, despite an early goal, they weren’t able to generate much after that, ultimately falling 5-1 on Saturday night.