Sabres upend Canadiens in OT 3-2

[March 20, 2013]  MONTREAL (AP) -- Steve Ott's second goal of the game at 2:16 of overtime lifted the Buffalo Sabres to a 3-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday.

P.K. Subban was off after his stick clipped Mark Pysyk and, with two seconds left in the man advantage, Ott was at the doorstep to shovel in a rebound and give Buffalo its second win in eight games.

Ott and Tyler Ennis scored in the opening period for the Sabres, who are 5-5-3 under coach Ron Rolston since Lindy Ruff was fired Feb. 20.

The Canadiens entered the third period down 2-0, but got goals from Max Pacioretty and Colby Armstrong to tie the game and avoid only their second regulation loss in their past 18 games.

Sabres scoring leader Thomas Vanek limped to the bench after taking a Christian Ehrhoff point shot off the hip during a power play eight minutes into the middle period and did not return. The team said he had an upper-body injury.

The Canadiens' failure to clear the puck from their zone led to two Buffalo goals in the opening period.

Ott jumped on a loose puck and sent a goal in off a post from the slot at 7:47 and Tyler Myers had a point shot go in off Ennis' stick in front of Carey Price at 18:59.

The Canadiens had an 11-2 shot advantage in the second period but failed to score, with Jonas Enroth stopping Michael Ryder at the doorstep.

Pacioretty scored on Montreal's 28th shot 7:04 into the third as he slid a shot in from the edge of the crease after some clever work by Brendan Gallagher behind the net.

Armstrong, with his second goal of the season and second in two games, deked to the backhand to beat Enroth at 16:09.

NOTES: The Canadiens moved Gabriel Dumont to center on the fourth line and promoted Armstrong to the third a game after he scored his first goal of the season. ... Michael Blunden was returned to AHL Hamilton with Michael Ryder back from an injury. ... Tomas Kaberle sat out for Montreal, while Nathan Gerbe and John Scott were Buffalo's scratches. Andrej Sekera missed with an upper-body injury. ... The ceremonial faceoff saw former world boxing champions Jean Pascal and Lucian Bute approach center ice from opposite directions. They fight each other May 25 at the Bell Centre.

[Associated Press]

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