The Sabres turned once again to goaltender Alex Lyon with their season on the line, but the night slipped away from him early. Buffalo briefly grabbed a 1-0 lead, but Lyon allowed the first three shots he faced to go in, prompting Lindy Ruff to pull him midway through the first period. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen settled the team down from there, and the Sabres answered with a relentless offensive surge to beat the Canadiens and force a Game 7.
Rasmus Dahlin opened the scoring just 32 seconds into the first period, taking the puck in from the circle, dancing around the Canadiens’ defense, and backhanding it past Jakub Dobeš to make it 1-0. Dahlin’s goal was one of five points he recorded on the night.
Arber Xhekaj, an unlikely offensive contributor for Montreal, answered by beating Lyon at 1:40 to tie the game 1-1. The Canadiens then went ahead on an Ivan Demidov power-play goal before Jake Evans capitalized on a shorthanded chance to make it 3-1 and ending Lyon’s night.
The Sabres responded after Mike Matheson was handed a four-minute double minor for high-sticking. Jason Zucker scored on the ensuing power play to cut the lead to 3-2 at 13:56.
Buffalo tied the game one minute into the second period when Zach Benson continued his clutch play by scoring his fifth playoff goal. From there, the Sabres never looked back.
Jack Quinn put Buffalo in front with a power-play goal at 10:54, firing home wrist shot for his first of the playoffs and giving the Sabres a 4-3 lead. Less than two minutes later, Konsta Helenius took a Zucker cross-ice feed and roofed it past Dobeš to extend the lead to 5-3.
Quinn scored again on the power play with a sharp-angle goal that sent Dobeš to the dressing room midway through the third period. Tage Thompson added an empty-net goal at 14:12, and Zach Metsa scored his first of the playoffs on another Sabres power play to seal the 8-3 final.
The two teams return to Buffalo on Monday night for a decisive Game 7.
