- I would have rather seen Sammy Blais in the lineup than Joe Veleno to make up for the loss of Alexandre Texier, but for whatever reason NHL coaches just don’t seem to trust him.
First period
- There’s a whole lot of red in the lower bowl in Buffalo.
- The pace is as high as I expected it to be in such a big game. The crowd seems pretty anxious to start however, or maybe they’re just enjoying the tempo.
- The players on both teams are little too amped maybe, making passes that teammates would have be skating at 60 kph to catch up with.
- The Sabres are maintaining their pace while the Habs have fallen off a bit. Jakub Dobeš has been called upon to make a couple of key saves.
- Montreal has recovered well to even up the shots.
- The defencemen are once again giving Tage Thompson too much space on his entries. He just glided into the slot for a shot, which Dobeš turned aside.
- At the other end, Thompson struggles to keep up with Montreal’s pace, and goes off for interference.
- The Sabres pay attention to Lane Hutson at the point, Nick Suzuki on the half-wall, and Cole Caufield below the goal line, but don’t have enough capacity to also watch Juraj Slafkovský in the slot, and he snaps in the opening goal from the slot.
Nick Suzuki with a quick feed to Juraj Slafkovsky in the slot, and he goes bar down. 1-0 #Habs
— Matt Drake (@drakemt.bsky.social) January 31, 2026 at 8:37 PM
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- Kaiden Guhle stands Thompson up at the blue line, and that’s more the way they need to defend him.
- Jake Evans just misses a rebound of Noah Dobson’s shot as is slides toward the end boards.
- Dobeš helps Montreal survive a 90-second shift in their zone, and that allows Montreal to eventually go the other way and draw a call. Bowen Byram heads off for sticking out his leg to slow down Suzuki.
- Ivan Demidov blasts a one-timer that Lyon was just able to squeeze his arm on. Notably, no stick explosion for Demidov on that occasion.
- No goal, but the top unit will be fresh for the final 67 seconds of the power play in the second period.
- A good back-and-forth 20 minutes between two good teams. Montreal had its bobbles, but Dobeš calmed everything down.
Second period
- They got a few chances, but the power play comes to an end as Hutson goes off for tripping.
- Josh Doan sees a rebound with a wide- open net, but a last-second stick-check from Mike Matheson deflects the puck to the end boards and the Habs survive the first wave.
- Now it’s Buffalo’s turn to end a power play early. Ryan McLeod hooks Guhle and will still for two minutes, or, ideally, less.
- Some quick passes get the puck across the zone to Demidov, and he should have taken the shot because Lyon was slow to react. Instead, Demidov held the puck waiting for a lane to a teammate, and the moment was lost.
- A couple of missed chances on the power play. The Habs do still have their one-goal lead, but you know the even-up is due before the end of the game.
- Matheson tries to stick-handle past Tuch as the last man back, and the Habs take a penalty trying to recover. The call never comes because Owen Power converts on the six-on-five to tie the game.
- The Sabres have had too much of the possession in this period. Montreal needs to get going again.
- Doan blasts a shot past the blocker of Dobeš, but square off the post.
- Veleno has the puck come to him in the slot. He attempts a stick-handle and … flings the puck to the side boards.
- With the puck back in Montreal’s zone. Dobson gets his stick into the face of a forechecker. Buffalo will have a shot at getting the go-ahead goal.
- Another good veteran play from Danault as he sees there’s a delayed offside, and just waits for the Sabres to clear the zone before then playing it back deep for a clear to kill off an additional 10 seconds.
- As the penalty expires, another is called as Hutson catches Tuch high with his stick. They need to stop doing that.
- I like the aggressive penalty kill, and the fact that there are two defencemen staying low to protect the crease.
- But then they get guilty of puck-watching at the end of the penalty, and no one picks up Noah Ostlund racing into the slot to fire in the go-ahead goal.
- That was a bad period for Montreal, failing to convert on three minutes of power-play time, outshot 12-6, and with some poor plays from the defencemen leading to two goals against. Guhle is the only defenceman breaking even in shot attempts and shots through 40 minutes. It’s now going to require a comeback effort to avoid a third consecutive loss to the Sabres.
Third period
- Lyon just squeezes another puck against his body as Hutson gets a point-blank chance early in the frame.
- A necessary quick start to this period for Montreal has Buffalo on its heels. The Habs have five shots through 90 seconds.
- Montreal’s sixth shot of the period is a tip in the slot from Caufield, and its his 31st of the season to tie the game at 4:14.
Noah Dobson with a shot/pass to the front of the net, Cole Caufield gets the redirect to tie the game at two.
— Matt Drake (@drakemt.bsky.social) January 31, 2026 at 10:16 PM
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- You get the feeling now that each team would be happy with a point. That would secure the season series for Buffalo to give them that tiebreaker, but they already have a big edge in the first one, regulation wins.
- Caufield doesn’t settle for any loser points. Already with he game-tying goal, he just scored the go-ahead marker. after getting left alone at the side of the net to accept a pass from Suzuki.
Nick Suzuki finds Cole Caufield driving the net, and the #Habs are back on top 3-2.
— Matt Drake (@drakemt.bsky.social) January 31, 2026 at 10:27 PM
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- We have some loud “Olés” is Buffalo, and quieter boos from the stunned home fans. This doesn’t happen often to Buffalo.
- Matheson ducks just in time to have a slapshot from Byram go off his helmet instead of his face. That would have been a horrific injury. Instead, Matheson skates off.
- Slafkovský leads a two-on-one with Oliver Kapanen, but the Finn can’t pot the rebound to give the Habs a bit of breathing room.
- Montreal smells this win and is still pushing a two-goal edge. The players aren’t sitting back.
- But they can’t be too aggressive and give up three-on-twos. That’s not the proper way to defend a lead.
- “Dobey” chants now at KeyBank Center as he makes a sequence of saves in tight.
- The ref ignores a body check on Suzuki at the point as he’s trying to get to the puck-carrier at the blue line, then immediately call Kirby Dach for leaning on Byram trying to prevent the defenceman from getting to a rebound. You can’t get any more proof that the officials were monitoring one teams to make a call on those five seconds right there
- The Sabres run some more interference at the blue line to gain the zone entry. They’re free to do whatever they want now.
- Thompson blasts the puck off the crossbar moments later.
- Kapanen collects the puck at the side of his crease and sends it down the ice into the empty net to all but seal the result of this one.
- It’s a 4-2 win from Montreal after a great response in the third period. Caufield’s Olympic snub looks worse for Bill Guerin by the day.
- Now to Minnesota to try to sweep the season series versus the Wild on Prime Monday Night Hockey, which is always a community favourite.
EOTP 3 Stars
3) On to the next must-win game
2) A pre-emptive comeback call? Interesting
1) Someone could have picked him up and put him on the medal podium
