First period
- Tage Thompson’s line gets the puck to the front of the net just 15 seconds in. That can’t happen with the same regularity it did last week if Montreal wants to win.
- At the 44-second mark, Buffalo gets the puck past Lane Hutson at the blue line, and Jason Zucker scores on the ensuing two-on-one. Montreal didn’t hear the wake-up call 30 seconds earlier.
- The Habs have begun to come alive a bit after the goal.
- Kaiden Guhle takes Zucker’s helmet directly to the chin on a hit behind Montreal’s net. The referee 25 feet away calls nothing. They’re only looking for inconsequential taps on hands.
- Late in a shift, Nick Suzuki finds Brendan Gallagher racing into the play off the bench. Gallagher has a pocket of ice among four Sabres players and fires a shot that beats Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, but not the goal post.
- The linesman blows the play dead after Montreal won an offensive-zone faceoff, but Michael Kesselring still got his stick into the face of Jake Evans, and that foul still counts even when the clock isn’t running.
- Montreal generates absolutely nothing on the power play, and it’s even worse than that because Beck Malenstyn skates around the outside of Noah Dobson, gets to the net, and scores with four seconds left in Kesselring’s penalty.
- With a hesitation at the blue line that led to a turnover earlier in the power play, it was a bad shift for Dobson.
- Konsta Helenius hits the post. Montreal came that close to going down three goals in the first period.
- Juraj Slafkovský’s line puts in the best shift of the game so far with two different attacking phases. They even intercepted a clearing attempt that would have resulted in a third, but they were too tired and had to go to the bench instead.
- A lazy start to the game led to one goal, and a lazy defensive effort from Dobson resulted in a second. There’s no reason Montreal shouldn’t have been ready for this game considering how close the teams are in the standings and how the game just one week ago turned out.
Second period
- The Slafkovský line spends another shift in the offensive zone, but it can’t stay on the ice forever. In Montreal’s end, Zach Benson bats the puck off one post, then the other, and finally is able to put the puck in on his third try.
- Montreal gets a three-on-one, but Josh Anderson’s hands are hooked as he attempts to knock in a cross-crease pass.
- Suzuki’s line comes out on a change, and Cole Caufield finds some open space in the high slot where no one can touch him to fire in his 26th goal of the season. Kirby Dach did good work in the corner to win the puck and allow for the familiar Suzuki-to-Caufield connection.
- The Habs are now stringing offensive-zone shifts together. They’ll need a second goal quickly here to take advantage of this burst and make it a game.
- The latest Slafkovský stick results in the Slovak having his stick slashed away, and that will be another power play.
- Let’s hope the second one is better than the first.
- Demidov was too casual with his passes versus an aggressive Sabres penalty kill. Montreal hasn’t been able to match Buffalo’s special-teams intensity.
- At least they didn’t get scored on this time.
- And it didn’t spoil the momentum. Back on the attack.
- Zachary Bolduc picks off the puck and is free to slide right to the hashmarks to get a shot off. Luukkonen makes the save but has no idea where the rebound is, but Suzuki does, and fires it in.
- With shots 21-9 for Montreal, and 11-1 this period, Lindy Ruff has called his timeout to settle his team.
- The crowd is singing “Olé!” with the Habs down 3-2. Such is the quality of their play at the moment.
- Mattias Samuelsson and Bolduc go off for coincidental roughing minors, opening the ice up a bit.
- Bolduc once again takes a top-four defenceman off the ice by getting punched in the face after going in on a breakaway and getting roughed up by three Sabres players.
- But wait, there’s an extra two minutes for Bolduc after a chop to the back of Dahlin’s leg after the play. So it’s a Buffalo power play, earned from getting beat for a breakaway in a period they’ve been utterly dominated.
- Zero shots for Buffalo. It’s like they knew they didn’t deserve that power play.
- Shots were 14-3 Montreal in the period. Penalties were even at three apiece. At least the goals were 2-1 for the Habs.
Third period
- Buffalo is getting hemmed in its zone early here. There’s a chance for this to be another multi-goal period if Montreal pushes, but just one will do for now.
- Kaiden Guhle draws a slashing penalty versus Noah Ostlund. This is the time to find the tying goal.
- They’re just not getting the message that passes need to be hard and crisp versus the aggressive sticks from Buffalo.
- Alex Tuch gets a short-handed breakaway, but Montembeault makes an important save. Hutson gave him a whack on the way by, however, and that will result in a Sabres power play.
- The penalty is killed, and there are just under 11 minutes to find a tying goal.
- That power play seems to have settled the Sabres down a bit.
- Montreal’s push doesn’t have the same intensity. They’re getting zone time, but not the scoring chances.
- Montembeault heads to the bench with two minutes to play.
- You may have seen this movie before. A defenceman winds up a slapshot and has his stick snap in half on the attempt to create a turnover. With no goaltender, it’s basically an automatic goal against for a 4-2 Buffalo lead.
- Montreal played pretty well for the final 59 minutes, but an inexplicably lethargic start to the first period had them trailing for each of those.
- Over the past eight days, the Sabres have gained four points on Montreal in head-to-head contests and now sit just two points back in the standings.
- The final game this week will be played in Boston versus a Bruins team on a similar charge to Buffalo. That will need to be Montreal’s best game of the season to this point to avoid another loss to a chasing team.
EOTP 3 Stars
3) They didn’t earn the honour of a wave tonight, however
2) It’s a valid point
1) Beck should get his agent on the case
