Patrik Laine scored in his highly anticipated Montreal debut, and the Canadiens defeated the New York Islanders 2-1 in overtime on Tuesday night.
Laine, playing his first regular-season game in nearly a year, opened the scoring on the power play 7:23 into the second period. The former 44-goal scorer showed off his wicked release with a wrist shot off the post and in, sending the Bell Centre crowd into a frenzy.
Nick Suzuki buried the overtime winner for Montreal (9-13-3) at 2:39, following up his own rebound as the Canadiens snapped a two-game skid. Sam Montembeault had a strong night in net, stopping 30 shots.
Anders Lee replied for New York (9-10-7), which lost its fourth in five games. Head coach and legendary Canadiens netminder Patrick Roy returned to the Bell Centre for the second time since being hired last season.
Ilya Sorokin made 25 saves.
Laine missed the first 24 games of the regular …