The hit came with the series tied 1-1 and the game was led 3-1 by the Habs. Malenstyn rushed the net and just never stopped.
He went anyway. Full force. No angle, no separation, no excuse.
The Bell Centre erupted, and not in a good way. You could hear the disbelief from the upper bowl when the arm only went up for a minor.
A goalie just got run, and the league response was a coffee break? That's the message Sunday.
The video tells the story better than any referee report could. Watch Malenstyn track Dobes through traffic, square his shoulders, and finish a check on a goaltender who never sees him coming.
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The Canadiens cashed in. Juraj Slafkovsky buried the man-advantage to push the lead to 4-1, his third power-play goal of this playoff run in nine games.
That's the leverage of a hot top-six winger. He's been Montreal's most reliable finisher with the extra man, and Lindy Ruff's penalty kill watched it happen again.
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Buffalo entered the series as the higher seed at 50-23-9, but the discipline keeps slipping. Beck Malenstyn is a depth forward with 1 shorthanded goal on the year and a single playoff assist.
That's not a player you want costing your team a goal on a frustration hit in the second round.
Jakub Dobes stayed in the crease after the contact, and Montreal kept the foot down. His .917 save percentage in nine playoff appearances isn't an accident.
The bigger question lands in the league office Monday morning. Does the Department of Player Safety look at the clip? Or does a two-minute minor really close the book on a deliberate run at a goaltender?
Martin St-Louis won't say it on the record. He doesn't have to. The Canadiens scoreboard already said plenty, and Game 4 is still coming Tuesday with the same officials likely on the call sheet.
|
YESTERDAY
MAY 10, 2026
| ||||
| G | A | PTS | ||
| Cutter Gauthier | - | 3 | 3 | |
| Mitch Marner | - | 3 | 3 | |
| Alex Newhook | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Cole Caufield | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Rasmus Dahlin | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Alexander Killorn | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Beckett Sennecke | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Tage Thompson | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Jack Eichel | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Jake Evans | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Lane Hutson | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Zachary Bolduc | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Kirby Dach | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Pavel Dorofeyev | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Mikael Granlund | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Tomas Hertl | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Brett Howden | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Ian Moore | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Juraj Slafkovsky | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Alexandre Carrier | - | 1 | 1 | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||