BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Montreal Canadiens have not lost consecutive games in close to two months. On Friday night, they extended that streak when it mattered most by beating the Buffalo Sabres 5-1 at KeyBank Center to even their second-round series 1-1.
The Canadiens followed up each of their three first-round losses to the Tampa Bay Lightning with wins and have now earned the road split they needed against the Sabres after losing 4-2 in Game 1.
The Canadiens haven’t lost two games in a row since March 14 and 15 at home to the San Jose Sharks and Anaheim Ducks. Since then, they are 8-0 after losses.
“I’m proud of the response, I’m not surprised,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. “And we’re going to start over for Game 3. Every game has its own story, every series has its own story, and you can’t let events dictate the story.
“You’ve just got to keep writing. Rewrite it if you don’t like it.”
Alex Newhook scored two goals in his first 38 career playoff games, the vast majority with the Colorado Avalanche over his first two NHL seasons. The forward has now scored three in his last three games after scoring the series-winner in Game 7 against the Lightning and twice in Game 2 against the Sabres. Defenseman Mike Matheson provided what turned out to be the Game 2 winner for the Canadiens with his first goal of the playoffs.
The Canadiens, just like the Sabres in Game 1, jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the first period, sucking the life out of a rocking KeyBank Center. Newhook scored his first goal 96 seconds into the game, tipping home a Kaiden Guhle feed in front, and Matheson made it 2-0 at 4:27 when his shot from the blue line sailed past Sabres goaltender Alex Lyon, who really should’ve saved it.
Newhook made it 3-0 by converting a Jake Evans feed at the back post at 4:47 of the second period.
“I thought he was great right from the start,” Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki said of Newhook and his line with Evans and rookie Ivan Demidov. “After that goal, he continued to dominate the whole game. He was big on the (penalty kill), their line generated a lot at five-on-five as well. Big effort from those guys.”
Sabres sparkplug Zach Benson scored his third goal of the playoffs with 37.2 seconds left in the second when he forced a turnover in the Canadiens’ zone and was left alone at the side of the net to convert a Conor Timmins feed, but Alexandre Carrier made it 4-1 at 3:54 of the third to snuff out any momentum the Sabres might have built.
“They’re such a skilled team, they have so much talent on that team,” Canadiens rookie goaltender Jakub Dobeš, who made 29 saves in the win, said of the Sabres. “Limiting them in space and on rushes always helps. Yeah, I feel like we improved from Game 1, from myself to the team. We’re looking to stay hungry and repeat the same thing on Sunday.”
Suzuki iced it with an empty-netter with 4:01 left in the third, his third goal of the playoffs.
The Canadiens showed no panic the day after their Game 1 loss, and none the morning of Game 2, either.
“Confidence is definitely not low right now,” Evans said Friday morning. “We believe in each other.”
For the second straight series, the Sabres dropped Game 2 with a dud of a performance at home. The slow start doomed Buffalo and took the juice out of what had been a raucous home crowd. The Sabres are now 2-3 at home in the playoffs and have a perfect 3-0 record on the road as this series heads to Montreal for Games 3 and 4.
“We had three or four of the goals (that) were just the result of bad puck play,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said postgame. “You can’t beat yourself. We beat ourselves. We know we have to be better. We said that after Game 1. It’s my job to make sure we get our minds in the right place.”
Sabres’ power-play issues return
The Sabres and their fans seemed relieved after the team got two power-play goals in Game 1. It felt like winning the lottery after a 1-for-46 stretch leading back to April 2.
But as we noted that night, it was the second unit that scored both goals, which is fine. But let’s also be real: Until the No. 1 unit featuring Tage Thompson and Rasmus Dahlin gets going, it remains a real concern. That unit has one power-play goal since early April. That’s baffling given the talent at play.
“I think that’s fair, for sure,’’ Ruff said. “Our top unit had a couple of looks, but I thought our (zone) entries again, we struggled. … We’ve been a pretty high percentage entry team; we just didn’t solve that little bit of pressure at the blue line. And that frustrates you because you got to go back, and you’re going to burn up 20 seconds. We’ll get there. We’ve been there, we’ll get there.’’
The Buffalo power play sputtered once again in Game 2. Natural Stat Trick had the Sabres with just one high-danger scoring chance in their first four power-play opportunities through 40 minutes.
Ruff started the second unit on the first wave of each of the team’s first two power plays, though the second time was probably because the top line had just been out for a long shift at five-on-five.
Montreal didn’t score on the power play either on Friday. The difference, though, is how the Habs generate dangerous looks despite not scoring, which creates momentum for the ensuing five-on-five after the penalty expires.
The Sabres’ power play is deflating their team right now. The Habs’ power play lifts them up.
Faceoff disparity
The Sabres were dead last in the NHL in faceoff percentage during the regular season, and it continues to plague them in the playoffs, where they’re also 16th out of the 16 playoff teams.
In Game 2, Montreal had a 57-43 faceoff win percentage edge. Phillip Danault went 10-5, and Jake Evans went 7-4 in the dot.
The Canadiens also won the faceoff battle in the opening round with Tampa Bay. Overall, Montreal ranks second among the 16 playoff teams in that domain.
Why does it matter? In a close series with such thin margins, winning faceoffs late in games to protect a lead or start a power play with the puck adds up. It did for Montreal in a close series against Tampa.
For the Sabres, losing faceoffs is one of the areas hurting their struggling power play. But even at five-on-five, offensive or defensive zone faceoff wins can be huge.
All of which is why Buffalo will get a boost once Sam Carrick returns to the lineup (Ruff said Friday morning that the 34-year-old center was on the “cusp” of returning from an arm injury). The trade-deadline acquisition from the New York Rangers went 57.3 percent in the faceoff dot for Buffalo after coming over. He can’t take draws for all four lines, but the Sabres will welcome his return in that area.
Buffalo’s top players come up small
At the end of the second period, the Canadiens had a 10-2 advantage in scoring chances during Dahlin’s five-on-five minutes and a 5-0 advantage during Alex Tuch and Thompson’s five-on-five minutes.
Thompson and Tuch had an expected goal share of 1.41 percent at five-on-five through two periods. Thompson hasn’t scored since Game 1 of Buffalo’s first-round series against Boston, but throughout that series, he was consistent away from the puck. In the decisive Game 6, Thompson and Tuch’s line drove play early and often.
Ruff said on Friday morning that Thompson’s goal-scoring drought wasn’t a concern as long as he was impacting the game in other areas. On Friday night, he wasn’t. Early in the third period, with the Sabres trailing 3-1, Thompson stumbled at the offensive blue line and turned the puck over, leading to Montreal’s fourth goal. Thompson then broke his stick over the post in frustration.
Do the Sabres have a goalie decision to make?
Lyon had been terrific since he took over for Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen at the end of Game 2 in Round 1. Coming into Friday, he had a .950 save percentage and a 1.30 goals against average in six starts this postseason. He had won four of those. This is the first time he’s had what could be considered an off night during the playoffs.
Turning to Luukkonen in Game 3 would be a bit of a risk for Ruff, but this is the first time it’s becoming a question. Turning to Lyon changed that Round 1 series against Boston. And he battled hard to make some strong saves late in the game against Montreal. That will factor into Ruff’s decision.
