The Sabres were badly outplayed for most of the night and dropped a 6-2 decision to the Canadiens on Sunday at the Bell Centre. Buffalo struck first, but Montreal quickly took over, dominating the rest of the game.
Buffalo got off to a quick start when Tage Thompson scored just 45 seconds into the opening period. Rasmus Dahlin fired a shot wide of the Montreal net, and the puck caromed behind the goal to Thompson, who quickly tucked it in before Jakub Dobes could recover and get back to the post.
The Canadiens answered at the 15:31 mark. Alex Newhook buried a rebound past Alex Lyon to tie the game 1-1, and the teams headed to the dressing room even after 20 minutes.
Montreal then took over in the second period. Cole Caufield gave the Canadiens their first lead of the night on the power play, finishing a Lane Hutson feed to make it 2-1. Zachary Bolduc extended the lead at 10:43, scoring off a pass from Joseph Veleno to push Montreal ahead 3-1.
Just over a minute later, Juraj Slafkovsky redirected a Hutson shot past Lyon for another power-play goal, stretching the Canadiens’ lead to 4-1. Dahlin responded for Buffalo on the man advantage at 14:46, cutting the deficit to 4-2 after two periods.
Kirby Dach added insurance at 8:46 of the third period, scoring his fourth goal of the playoffs to make it 5-2. Newhook then sealed it with an empty-net goal after being hooked on a breakaway toward Buffalo’s vacant net, finishing off the 6-2 result.
Buffalo will try to regroup Tuesday night for Game 4 at Bell Centre.
