There is only one former Ohio State Buckeye left in the NHL Playoffs.
Montreal goaltender Jakub Dobeš has played a major role in the Canadiens advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals after outlasting both the Tampa Bay Lightning and Buffalo Sabres in seven game series in the first two rounds.
Heading into the 2025-26 season, Sam Montembeault was the top goaltender for Montreal after starting 60 games last season, earning 31 wins and posting a 2.82 goals against average in the regular season. Montembeault didn’t
live up to expectations over the first two months of the season, allowing 41 goals in the 13 games he appeared in.
Eventually Montreal would turn to Dobeš, who is still considered a rookie after starting 15 games during the regular season last year, and two games in the playoffs. The former Buckeye impressed in December and January, going 10-2-1 over those two months.
By the time Montreal and the rest of the NHL took some time off in February to break for the Olympics, it was clear Dobeš was the top goalie for the Canadiens.
Once the teams reconvened after the Olympics concluded, Dobeš picked up right where he left off, going 7-3 in March, with a 2.21 goals against average during the month. By the time the regular season ended in middle of April, Montreal was three points shy of tying the Buffalo Sabres for the Atlantic Division title, settling for third place in the division after tying the Tampa Bay Lightning with 106 points.
With the odd NHL Playoff format which pits the second and third place teams in each division against each other, the Lightning and Canadiens squared off in the first round of the playoffs. Had the NHL adopted a normal format which gave the division winners the top two seeds and then seeded the rest of the eight teams in the conference in order of most points, Montreal would have been the fourth seed and playing Boston in the first round.
Tampa Bay and Montreal put on a classic seven-game series, with the teams alternating wins and each game being decided by one goal. The first three games of the series went to overtime, with Dobeš and the Canadiens taking two of those three contests.
With the series tied 2-2, Dobeš stood on his head in Tampa, saving 38 of the 40 shots he faced as Montreal took a 3-2 lead in the series with a 3-2 victory in regulation.
The Canadiens had a chance to send end the series in Montreal in Game 6 but Tampa Bay wouldn’t allow that to happen despite an outstanding performance from Dobeš. The game went to overtime scoreless before the Lightning would find a winner halfway through the first overtime period. Dobeš did all he could to keep his team in the game, registering 32 saves.
Going up against veteran Andrei Vasilevskiy, Dobeš held his own in a pressure-packed Game 7 in Tampa. The Lightning peppered Dobeš with shots but the rookie was up to the task, making 28 saves in the 29 shots he faced in the 2-1 to give the Canadiens the series win.
During the seven games, Dobeš stopped 181 of the 196 shots against him. Despite being just a rookie, it became obvious that pressure wasn’t going to get the best of Dobeš.
With the win over Tampa Bay, Montreal advanced to the Conference Semifinals to battle the Buffalo Sabres, who won the Atlantic Division after not making the playoffs in over a decade. If there was a feel-good story in the NHL Playoffs this year, it was the Sabres.
Along with playing a team who many were rooting for, Montreal was the only team from Canada left in this year’s playoffs, as the country to the north hasn’t won a Stanley Cup in over 30 years.
After a back-and-forth series with Tampa Bay, the series with Buffalo was more of a roller coaster with bigger peaks and valleys. After the Sabres took the first game, Montreal responded with big wins in the second and third games of the series, where Dobeš would stop 54 of the 57 shots he faced.
The Canadiens would eventually go up 3-1 in the series before Buffalo would go on to win two of the next three games, including an 8-3 victory in Game 6, which would see Dobeš pulled in the third period after allowing six goals.
Many goaltenders might have trouble rebounding for Game 7 after such a poor performance in the previous game, but Dobeš was the reason Montreal was able to end Buffalo’s Cinderella run. The Canadiens went up 2-0 in the game before the Sabres tied the game in the third period.
For the rest of the third period and early in the first overtime period it felt like it was only a matter of time before Buffalo won the game and the series but Dobeš kept stopping pucks and was able to keep his team in the game before Alex Newhook scored the series winner.
Now Montreal will take on the Carolina Hurricanes, who were the top seed in the Eastern Conference with 113 points. Unlike Montreal, who has played the maximum of 14 games through the first two rounds of the playoffs, the Hurricanes have swept both Ottawa and Philadelphia.
The two teams have met twice in the playoffs since Carolina moved from Hartford. The Hurricanes won both of those series with the most recent being in the Conference Quarterfinals in 2006.
Should Montreal be able to move past Carolina, it would mark the first Stanley Cup Final for the Canadiens since the 2020-21 season, where they lost to the Colorado Avalanche in the bubble.
The last time Montreal made the Stanley Cup Final in a normal NHL season was at the end of the 1993-94 campaign when they beat the Los Angeles Kings in five games, marking the last time a team from Canada won the Stanley Cup.
With how fundamentally sound Carolina is on the ice, Dobeš is going to need to continue to display the incredible focus he has shown in the first two rounds. Despite his lack of his experience, Dobeš looks like a seasoned veteran between the pipes.
The Hurricanes are certainly to test the former Buckeye just as much mentally as they will physically. At least Dobeš can bring some confidence into the matchup, as he won all three of his starts against Carolina during the regular season.
The Eastern Conference Finals kick off tonight in Raleigh and the winner of the series will go on to play the winner of the Western Conference Finals between the Las Vegas Golden Knights and the Colorado Avalanche.
