- Lindy Ruff had one line going in this series, and has tossed that into the blender for this game with the others trying to spark two players who aren’t going. We’ll see how that works out.
First period
- It’s a very familiar refrain at this point. A weak clearing attempt by the top line — Juraj Slafkovský tonight rather than Cole Caufield — allows the Buffalo Sabres to stay on the attack, and they take advantage with a quick goal. Rasmus Dahlin dekes his way to the net and beats Jakub Dobeš high. For the fifth time in six games, the Montreal Canadiens are trailing in the first period.
- I guess if it’s a winning strategy, there’s no reason to mess with it.
- Ivan Demidov steals the puck from Dahlin almost ties the game right back up. It looks like he’s carrying his play from the last game to this one.
- We’re getting offence from the defence tonight. Arber Xhekaj takes what looks like a harmless shot from the blue line, and Alex Lyon completely misses it. It’s 1-1 after 100 seconds.
- A sixth Sabre jumps on the ice and plays the puck. Twenty Canadiens players and 21,000 fans see it, but the four striped men who can make the call somehow missed it.
- Despite Lyon looking shaky on the goal, the Canadiens haven’t sent another one his way with seven minutes played.
- Alex Newhook gets put in a headlock in the neutral zone by Peyton Krebs, knocking his helmet off, and that will be a roughing penalty. Newhook also grabbed Krebs’s stick on the play, so I wonder if this is the refs chance to make up for missing the too many men a few shifts earlier.
- Let’s see what Demidov does on this power play.
- What he does is score on a short-side one-timer. He’s now converted the Habs’ last two man advantages into goals.
- Phillip Danault is immediately called for hooking after losing body position on Josh Norris. So the Sabres can get that power-play goal right back.
- Dahlin is allowed to skate right to the crease and makes contact with Dobeš. On his way out of the crease he whacks the goaltender, and Dobeš gives one right back. Dahlin can’t decide which body part he wants to pretend is injured and ends up changing it from his hand to his leg. The ref finds that a little suspicious, and Dahlin will go off for embellishing along with the Dobeš slash being called.
- Still on the power play, the Sabres get caught, and Jake Evans leads a short-handed two-on-one. He opts to shoot, and the shot beats Lyon to make it 3-0 Montreal.
- Lyon comes out for Luukkonen, and will finish the game with a .000 save percentage after not making a single save on the three shots that came his way (though Demidov did have an unofficial one early on).
- Tage Thompson speeds into the zone in the dying seconds of the power play and blasts a shot that beats Dobeš, but not the post as the cage rattles.
- The crowd gives a sarcastic cheer to Luukkonen as he makes Buffalo’s first official save of the night.
- Matheson can’t decide what to do with the puck along the half-wall and ends up fanning on a pass to Xhekaj. Once again, a Sabres shift gets extended. This time the shift ends with a four-minute high-sticking penalty on Matheson, who hit Norris in front.
- Jason Zucker makes it a one-goal game with a pass that Josh Anderson just can’t quite intercept on its way across the crease. It’s wild one at the Bell Centre.
- Demidov almost had his second goal of the period on a cross-ice pass, but Luukkonen made a critical stop.
- Norris hooks Hutson to allow two Sabres to break up ice. Hutson ensures the refs see that he was interfered with. Both are being called, another embellishment, but at least the offensive rush was averted.
- Hutson can’t corral a pass on a two-on-one after he gets out of the box, spoiling a late chance for Montreal to go up by two goals again. They will have to settle for a one-goal lead going into the first intermission after a four-shot, but three-goal period.
Second period
- Alexandre Texier gets free for a breakaway pass but doesn’t receive it, then Jakub Dobeš has to make a pokecheck on Benson, so it seems we’re in for another high-event period.
- Before that shift even comes to an end Benson ties the game as the puck sits in behind Dobeš and neither Matheson nor Alexandre Carrier can get to it before Benson does to tie the game 3-3.
- The two-goal lead is now gone, and shots are 16-5 Buffalo.
- Alex Newhook gets the puck behind Luukkonen, but on this occasion the Sabres’ defence gets to the puck first.
- It was at about this point in Game 5 that Montreal turned the momentum, and they need to make that happen once again because it’s all Buffalo right now.
- The Canadiens rush up the ice and see a Sabres player sprinting in the opposite direction to the bench. There’s one reason for that scenario — too many men on the ice — so the Sabres give Montreal some help with another bad penalty while they had all the momentum.
- It was a dangerous-looking penalty, but there was no goal.
- Five-on-five doesn’t last long as Carrier gets beat and wraps his arms around Zucker. Buffalo will have a chance to take its first lead since the opening minute of the game.
- Jack Quinn fires a shot from high in the zone and it goes past the glove of Dobeš. It’s 4-3 Buffalo.
- Joe Veleno takes a hit to the head in the neutral zone and loses the puck, Kaiden Guhle goes for a hit at the blue line and misses, and it’s 5-3. Four consecutive goals for Buffalo.
- It’s yet another poor performance from Montreal on home ice.
- We’re also nearing the point where the Sabres fall into their defensive game, and Montreal hasn’t been able to penetrate that very well in this series when the defencemen stop being aggressive.
- Matheson gets hooked by Alex Tuch on one of the very few forays into the offensive zone by Montreal in this period, and they have a chance to make it a one-goal game on the power play. Urgency needs to be at his highest now.
- Too much play on the perimeter. They weren’t able to get anything to the interior for a good chance.
- Tuch gets a breakaway out of the box, but Dobeš makes a glove stop to prevent the lead from reaching three.
- Can’t play much worse than that with a chance to close out a series on home ice. Buffalo had three goals on 17 shots.
Second intermission
- If Martin St-Louis has a speech he’s been saving for the most critical moment of the playoffs, now might be the time to bring it out.
Third period
- The crowd gets loud for the opening puck drop, trying to rally the troops.
- I think Montreal has already had more offensive-zone time in the third than during the second period, so this is an encouraging start.
- Now somehow they need to turn the zone time into shots that will test Luukkonen.
- Through six minutes, Montreal has one shot. Buffalo can be very strong defensively when there’s a lead to work with. The Canadiens need to start just tossing the puck toward the net and seeking rebounds, because this isn’t doing it.
- Buffalo gets an offensive-zone presence and Ryan McLeod hits the crossbar. That’s the most dangerous chance for either team in this frame.
- Josh Anderson gives the puck away to Benson, and gets called for slashing as Benson broke to the net, though I didn’t see anything penalty-worthy on the replay
- Buffalo will get to kill two more minutes off the clock.
- They actually do better than that, a sixth goal to double up the Habs.
- Dobeš comes out to an encouraging cheer from the fans, as Jacob Fowler steps in for his first NHL playoff experience.
- It’s another stinker on home ice as the Bell Centre fans have seen four losses and just two wins. The good news is that Game 7 will be played on the road, where Montreal has won five times in this post-season, including twice at KeyBank Center.
- Fowler goes to the bench with 7:30 to play.
- Montreal is pushing with the extra attacker. If only they’d shown this urgency when it was 4-3 or even 5-3.
- An empty-netter makes it 7-3 Buffalo.
- Xhekaj gets two minutes for making a hit at the blue line and then a 10-minute misconduct. We’ll hope that the officials are getting all the bad calls out of their system tonight.
- Craig Simpson is correctly calling out the officials for changing the mood of the game with that Xhekaj penalty. Another scrum happens in Montreal’s zone, and they just keep sending Habs players to the dressing room. A little extra rest ahead of Monday’s Game 7.
- On the power play, Matheson screens Fowler and also tips the shot into the net to prevent the young goaltender from getting through his first playoff experience unscathed.
- The final is 8-3. Now hopefully everyone is a little angry for Monday night.
EOTP 3 Stars
3) It’s been a big advantage in this post-season
2) Smart to save it for Game 7 instead
1) At least they also (finally) called Dahlin
