Newhook scores twice again, Canadiens defeat Sabres in Game 3

MONTREAL -- Alex Newhook scored twice for the second straight game, and the Montreal Canadiens scored four straight goals en route to a 6-2 victory against the Buffalo Sabres in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Second Round at Bell Centre on Sunday.

Cole Caufield had a goal and an assist, Lane Hutson and Jake Evans each had two assists, and Jakub Dobes made 26 saves for Montreal, which is the No. 3 seed from the Atlantic Division.

“We had the momentum a lot,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. “We kept it for a long time. Of course you’re going to lose momentum, Buffalo is an excellent team, but we didn’t hurt ourselves too much when we lost it.”

Tage Thompson and Rasmus Dahlin each had a goal and an assist, and Alex Lyon made 31 saves for Buffalo, which is the No. 1 seed from the Atlantic.

Montreal leads the best-of-7 series 2-1. Game 4 will be here on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN, CBC, TVAS).

“They’re a skilled team,” Thompson said. “They’ve got a lot of players that can make plays and score. They don’t need a whole lot to put it in the back of the net. I think we’ve been opening it up a little bit too much, taking a bit too many risks off the rush. Obviously, we like when our 'D' are joining and getting involved in the play, but we’ve got to be smart when we do it, pick our times, and the forwards have got to be better when they are in there and tracking back.”

Thompson put the Sabres up 1-0 when he scored 53 seconds into the first period. Dahlin’s shot from the point caromed off the end boards, hitting Canadiens defenseman Alexandre Carrier’s right leg and changing direction before Thompson put away the rebound in front.

Newhook tied it 1-1 at 15:31 with his first goal of the game. After battling with Buffalo defenseman Bowen Byram for possession behind the net, Newhook came out front and put away the rebound of Evans’ shot, which hit off the stick of Sabres defenseman Conor Timmins.

Caufield put Montreal up 2-1 with a power-play goal at 6:05 of the second period. After a tap-in opportunity went wide of the left post in the opening minute of the period, Caufield made no mistake on another chance at an open net after Hutson set him up in front.

It was his second goal of the playoffs after scoring 51 during the regular season.

“I’m just trying to build off these last couple of games,” Caufield said. “Obviously, it’s tight out there, there’s little room, but when there is, you’ve got to take advantage of that. And I think I’m starting to do that, and hopefully we can keep that going.”

Zachary Bolduc made it 3-1 at 10:43 when he drove in from the right side and one-timed a pass from Joe Veleno past Lyon stick side.

“We got the best start we could get to the game, and then we were breaking a couple of pucks out and we made some ill-advised plays, some bad decisions that we haven’t been making,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “Montreal’s a good team. They made us pay for our mistakes.”

Juraj Slafkovsky pushed it to 4-1 at 12:17. He scored Montreal’s second power-play goal of the game with a deflection of Hutson’s slap shot.

“I liked our power play, we had so many more chances to score,” Slafkovsky said. “Sometimes you get lucky and a tip like this goes in, and maybe some bigger chances don’t go in, but we’ll take it. It’s another goal on the board for us, so that makes us lead more. So, I’ll take it.”

Dahlin cut it to 4-2 at 14:46 with a power-play goal. He used teammate Zach Benson, as well as Canadiens defenseman Mike Matheson and Newhook, as a screen and put a snap shot past Dobes off the far post.

Kirby Dach made it 5-2 at 8:46 of the third period. Alexandre Texier's shot on a rush hit the left post, and with Lyon moving to make the save, he left his backside open for Dach's finish in front.

Newhook, who scored twice in Montreal's 5-1 win in Game 2 on Friday, was awarded his second goal of the game at 15:14 after he was hooked by Dahlin and hit the post on an empty net.

“They’re such a dangerous team,” Lyon said. “They have four lines that can contribute, so credit to them. It’s our job now to be able to get it out of our system and be ready to play in the next game. They’ve won two and they have some momentum, and they’ve played well both of the last games. But you know what? We haven’t played our best game in the series and so we have to focus on bringing that the next game.”

NOTES: Newhook is the first Canadiens player with two straight multigoal games in the playoffs since Mark Recchi in 1997. … Sabres forward Sam Carrick played 6:17 and had two shots in his first game since he sustained an upper-body injury on March 31.