Luukkonen makes 32 saves, Sabres hold off Canadiens

MONTREAL -- The Buffalo Sabres built a three-goal lead before holding on for a 4-2 win against the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Thursday.

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 32 saves, and Jason Zucker, Beck Malenstyn, Zach Benson and Peyton Krebs scored for Buffalo (28-17-5), which has won consecutive games and four of six (4-1-1), including a 5-3 win against Montreal a week earlier.

“It's fun to come into this building and take points away,” Luukkonen said. “So I think we kind of calmed it down after the two goals they scored. You know, I think we just played a good game today.”

Nick Suzuki had a goal and an assist, and Cole Caufield scored for a fourth straight game for Montreal (28-16-7), which had won its past two games. Sam Montembeault made 13 saves.

“I think they were taking it to us a little too much early on,” Suzuki said. “We just weren’t being strong enough on the puck and not winning enough battles. I thought as the game progressed we just kind of took over and they were hanging on. We just couldn’t claw back out of the hole we dug ourselves.”

Buffalo scored the first three goals to build a 3-0 lead.

Zucker scored 44 seconds into the first period to put the Sabres up 1-0. He drove the right side of the slot and one-timed Jack Quinn’s backhand pass on a 2-on-1 to score stick side on Montembeault from the right hash marks.

Malenstyn made it 2-0 with a short-handed goal at 14:58. He got to a loose puck along the left boards ahead of Noah Dobson and raced around the Montreal defenseman to cut across the goalmouth and put a backhand around Montembeault’s left pad.

“Unbelievable play,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “I mean the speed he got, and then to get around (Montembeault).”

Benson pushed it to 3-0 at 2:25 of the second, deflecting Konsta Helenius’ backhand pass off the left post and then hitting the right post on the rebound before jamming the puck in glove side.

Caufield drew Montreal within 3-1 at 3:56 with a one-timer from the slot on a pass from Suzuki on the right boards. Caufield has seven points (five goals, two assists) during the streak.

Suzuki cut it to 3-2 at 11:20. Zachary Bolduc was at the top of the right face-off circle when he gloved Quinn’s backhand clearing attempt from the corner before shooting from the slot, with Suzuki putting away the rebound.

“I think they were more aggressive,” Zucker said about Montreal’s pushback. “I think they were on their toes a little bit more than we were. They got us on our heels. We started throwing pucks away. I think that was the biggest thing from our side.”

Krebs shot into an empty net with 44 seconds remaining for the 4-2 final after Canadiens defenseman Lane Hutson’s stick broke on his shot attempt from the right point.

“I think we played a really good second period,” Montembeault said. “Obviously their goal was bad bounces, it hit a stick, it was going wide, but after that we kept pushing. We were sustaining offense, like we were always first on the rebounds and just retrieving, our forecheck was doing a good job too.

“So we were able to get just one goal behind after the second but they did a good job in the third of not giving us much for us to come back.”

NOTES: Sabres defenseman Jacob Bryson left the game with an upper-body injury at 12:56 of the second period. “He’s going to miss some time,” Ruff said. … Malenstyn’s short-handed goal was the Sabres’ seventh of the season, tying the Calgary Flames and Los Angeles Kings for the most in the NHL. … Canadiens forward Alexandre Texier missed his second straight game; he is day to day with a lower-body injury.