Sabres weather another hostile storm, inch closer to Canadiens

MONTREAL – By the game, the Buffalo Sabres are growing more comfortable with the uncomfortable.

Thursday at the always-raucous Bell Centre, they staved off another comeback bid to beat the Montreal Canadiens 4-2, pulling within two points of their division rival for third place in the Atlantic.

The Sabres built a three-goal lead, bent but didn’t break in the second period, then closed it out with another strong third, extending their incredible run to 17-3-1. That includes a 10-2-0 stretch on the road, highlighted by wins in Edmonton, Dallas, and now Montreal.

“I think coming into a sold-out Bell Centre is as close to a playoff game as you’re going to get in the regular season,” forward Beck Malenstyn said. “… When they get a little momentum, it’s a hostile environment. And I think it’s a great lesson for us, how we eventually weathered that storm in that game.”

“It’s fun to come into this building and take points away,” added goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.

The Sabres did well to quiet the crowd early, as Jason Zucker scored just 44 seconds in on a 2-on-1 rush. Significant, as they’re now 20-3-1 when scoring first this season.

Later in the first, Malenstyn added another entry to his short, yet impressive goal-scoring resume with No. 4 of the season. Shorthanded, he outraced Montreal defenseman Noah Dobson to a loose puck and outmuscled him to the net, pushing a backhand past Samuel Montembeault for a 2-0 Sabres lead. As a team, Buffalo is now tied for the NHL lead with seven shorthanded goals.

“It’s nice when those go in, but for me, it’s just trying to play a consistent game every night,” said the fourth-line winger, who’s been one of Buffalo’s most consistent players all year. “I’d love to sprinkle a few more honest ones that bounce off my leg or something in front of the net, too.”

Zach Benson extended the lead early in the second, a third-effort play that netted linemate Konsta Helenius his third primary assist in two games.

The game then took a similar spin to Tuesday’s in Nashville, with a first Canadiens goal – by Cole Caufield – tilting the ice heavily toward Buffalo’s end. Nick Suzuki capitalized on a turnover to make it 3-2 midway through the period. The Sabres took that one-goal lead to the second intermission thanks in part to Luukkonen, who denied Zachary Bolduc on a late breakaway.

Buffalo managed just three shots in the second period to Montreal’s 15, but things leveled out again in the third. Getting pucks deep forced the rush-happy Canadiens to go a full 200 feet, and they had little luck in search of a tying goal.

“I thought we played a rock-solid third period where we maybe gave up one chance in a one-goal game, which I’ve got to give our guys a lot of credit for – just locking back into our game,” coach Lindy Ruff said.

With 44 seconds remaining, empty-net sniper Peyton Krebs buried another long attempt to silence the Canadiens crowd for good. These days, nobody’s more dangerous with an open cage than Krebs, who’s finished the job in back-to-back games and four times this season.

“He’s become the specialist,” said Ruff, acknowledging the risk of missing wide for icing. “… Most of them have been from the other side of center, and he’s hit the net.”

To Malenstyn’s earlier point, Thursday’s win had a playoff feel to it, considering both the environment and the standings implications. As well as the Sabres have played, a couple bad days could still bounce them out of the top eight, and most opponents face similar concerns. That they keep winning under such pressure bodes well for the next few months.

“It’s a great challenge for us to just know that, every single game, we’re gonna get the other team’s best, and you can’t take anybody lightly,” Malenstyn continued. “Hopefully, we stay on that path and we can find ourselves in a playoff spot when the dust settles. And I think every team that gets in coming out of the East is gonna be extremely well prepared.”

Here’s more from the win.

UPL keeps rolling

Luukkonen finished with 32 saves on 34 shots, with the Bolduc breakaway highlighting a series of timely stops to preserve Buffalo’s lead.

“I thought he was phenomenal the entire night; he made some great saves for us,” Zucker said. “We lose that game without UPL tonight.”

The Finnish Olympian is now 7-2-1 with a .922 save percentage in his last 10 games. As a team, the Sabres have an NHL-best .917 save percentage since Dec. 9.

Divisional nastiness

Zucker had a high hit on Kaiden Guhle early; Bolduc elbowed Benson in the face late. The divisional showdown had plenty of physicality and after-the-whistle chaos, and as Zucker pointed out postgame, the Sabres needed to be careful not to get too involved and further energize the crowd.

“I thought we did a good job of just toeing the line,” agreed Malenstyn. “You obviously want to be active in it – there’s a lot of emotion, you want to lean into that – but you don’t want to cross the line too much.

Bryson exits, others step up

Defenseman Jacob Bryson exited early with an upper-body injury, last leaving the ice with 7:04 remaining in the second period. He’s “going to miss some time,” Ruff said.

As a result, the Sabres needed heavy workloads from their other defensemen. Bowen Byram skated a team-high 27:21, his second most in a game this season, and partner Owen Power set a season high with 26:26. Byram finished plus-three, Power plus-two.

“He’s got a big engine,” Ruff said of Byram. “We leaned on him pretty heavy tonight, but he’s able to handle it.”

Up next

The Sabres play a 1 p.m. Saturday matinee at another Eastern Conference contender, the New York Islanders. MSG’s pregame coverage starts at 12:30.