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After the first period, it’s fair to say most Habs fans weren’t feeling super upbeat about their team’s performance. It was 2-0 for the Columbus Blue Jackets and the team from Ohio seemed to have spooked the Habs with a couple of dirty hits from behind early in the period.

But things began to turn for the better for the CH from the start of the second, with Nick Suzuki scoring just 27 seconds into the period. It was the Montreal captain’s first goal of the season.

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The Canadiens had a lot more jump in the second and in his post-game on-ice interview with RDS’s Marc Denis, Cole Caufield confirmed what most of us thought, which is that head coach Martin St. Louis had something to say to the troops in the dressing room after that awful first period.

“There were some words said from coach,” said Caufield.

And there was some impressive action from young Mr. Caufield. He scored his second overtime goal of the season to give the CH a 4-3 win over the Blue Jackets. He sniped a beauty that soared into the top corner behind goalie Elvis Merzlikins.

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Sean Monahan had tied it up just under eight minutes into the third, tipping in a Caufield shot to make it 3-3.

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Mike Matheson had brought the Canadiens within one goal right at the end of the second, with a wrister from just above the face-off circle.

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It was Matheson’s second goal in two games, following his highlight-reel marker against the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday when he went coast-to-coast. Both were power-play goals.

On Thursday, Montreal scored two power-play goals, a big boost for the team’s much-criticized play on the man advantage.

Emil Bemstrom scored two of the Columbus goals, with the first coming on the power play late in the first and the second was also with the man advantage, in the second.

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On his second goal, Bemstrom was standing all by himself to the right of Habs goalie Samuel Montembeault.

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The first Blue Jackets goal came on a beauty of a play with Johnny Gaudreau feathering a just-perfect pass to Jack Roslovic right in front of the net.

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It was the first NHL game for 6-foot-5 240-pound Russian forward Dmitri Voronkov and he made his presence felt almost immediately, hitting Montreal defenceman Arber Xhekaj from behind in a dirty hit that led to The Sheriff getting into an intense fight with the Russian newcomer.

In the end, it was a character win for the Canadiens, who came back from a 3-1 deficit, clearly sparked by some choice words from St. Louis during the first intermission.

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