Jakub Dobes gets emotional after Canadiens' huge Game 5 win
Jakub Dobes stopped 33 of 36 shots Thursday night in Buffalo, and after the Canadiens took Game 5 6-3, he made sure to thank head coach Martin St-Louis for one specific decision.
The 24-year-old goalie wasn't pulled. He wasn't yanked after a soft one. He stayed in his crease, and now Montreal leads the series 3-2 with a chance to close it out at home.
«I thanked Martin for letting me play in goal. I'm proud of how I bounced back,» Dobes told reporter Anthony Martineau after the game.
That's the quote, and it tells you everything about the temperature inside that locker room heading into Saturday's Game 6.
-
Because Dobes has been the Canadiens' guy in net all postseason. Twelve playoff games, a .915 save percentage, five wins. Numbers that have outperformed his regular-season .901.
Sticking with him in a hostile barn, after Montreal dropped Game 4 at home, was the kind of call that either looks brilliant or gets second-guessed for a week. St-Louis went with brilliant.
Why the Canadiens' bench boss leaned on his backup turned starter
Look at the depth chart. Samuel Montembeault is in there at $3.15 million on a .873 save percentage this season. Dobes makes $965,000 and has been the steadier hand.
The numbers told the coach what to do. The coach trusted them. That's the part Dobes is thanking him for, even if Game 5 wasn't a pretty stat line on its face.
Three goals against on 36 shots looks good. But it was three goals after four shots. Buffalo generated chances. Bowen Byram fired four shots from the back end, Mattias Samuelsson put up five. Dobes absorbed the storm after a shaky beginning.
Up the lineup, the help came from everywhere. Juraj Slafkovsky put up three assists, Nick Suzuki had a goal and two helpers, Ivan Demidov chipped in two points including a power-play marker.
Lane Hutson added two assists from the blue line. The Canadiens' rookie defenceman is sitting on 10 points in his last five playoff games. Quietly, he's been the engine.
But the story Friday morning is the kid in the cap with the orange phone shoved in his face. The goalie nobody outside Montreal was talking about three weeks ago is one win from putting the Sabres on summer vacation.
Game 6 is Saturday at the Bell Centre. Buffalo has won there once this series already. The question now is whether Martin St-Louis rides the same horse one more time.
He almost certainly does. And if Dobes delivers again, the second-round storyline writes itself.
|
YESTERDAY
MAY 14, 2026
| ||||
| G | A | PTS | ||
| Nick Suzuki | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Juraj Slafkovsky | - | 3 | 3 | |
| Pavel Dorofeyev | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Ivan Demidov | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Mitch Marner | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Shea Theodore | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Phillip Danault | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Lane Hutson | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Josh Anderson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Cole Caufield | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Josh Doan | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jake Evans | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Mikael Granlund | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Konsta Helenius | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Brett Howden | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Alexandre Texier | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jason Zucker | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Rasmus Andersson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Ivan Barbashev | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Leo Carlsson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||