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 "We haven't had many in a while," said Sabres left winger Marcus
Foligno, who had the first three-point performance of his career.
"We've had games slip away here that shouldn't have been. This is
something we need to build off of."
Foligno and Evander Kane each scored twice for Buffalo (22-28-6).
Center David Legwand and defenseman Josh Gorges also scored for the
Sabres and goalie Chad Johnson made 26 saves.
It was a wild, back-and-forth affair that featured plenty of offense
and questionable defense on both ends. The Sabres jumped out to a
4-1 lead before the Canadiens cut the lead to 4-3 in the second
period.
"We wanted to keep the crowd into it," Kane said. "There was a lot
of Montreal fans in the building, we didn't want them leaving early.
So I thought we'd give them a couple back and keep it interesting
until the end."
"'Loose' is a good description," said Sabres coach Dan Bylsma. "But
I thought it was great to see us battle that way."
Center Alex Galchenyuk and right winger Sven Andrighetto each scored
twice for the Canadiens (27-25-4). Goalie Mike Condon made 11 saves
and allowed two goals after replacing Ben Scrivens early in the
second period.
"It's tough. A tough game for us," Montreal defenseman P.K. Subban
said. "Obviously, we'd like to have a better result. But at the same
token, I felt we did a lot of things well."
The game's pivotal moment came with 2:19 remaining in the second
when Foligno was obstructed on a breakaway by Galchenyuk. Foligno
was awarded a penalty shot and buried his chance by launching a
wrist shot into the top corner of the net for his second of the
evening.
"I just thought, 'Get it over his glove.' ... And it ended up being
a good one," Foligno said.
Andrighetto opened the scoring with a hard slap shot off the post
and in 3:44 into the game.
Legwand evened the score on a partial breakaway with 7:10 remaining
in the first. It was his first goal since Nov. 23.
Kane gave Buffalo a 2-1 lead just before the end of the first
following a tic-tac-toe passing play by center Ryan O'Reilly and
right winger Marcus Foligno.
Gorges made it 3-1 just 1:28 into the second after burying his own
rebound. It was his second goal of the season.
The Canadiens pulled Scrivens after Gorges' goal, but the struggles
in net continued. Foligno made 4-1 just 50 seconds later off a
deflection from close range.
Then it was Buffalo's turn for struggles between the pipes as the
Canadiens staged a comeback. Galchenyuk made it 4-2 with a one-timer
on a 4-on-3 opportunity 4:47 into the second.
[to top of second column] |
Andrighetto cut Buffalo's lead to 4-3 with his second of the night
two minutes later following a terrible giveaway by Johnson. The
Sabres goalie inadvertently passed the puck directly to Andrighetto
on a clearing attempt, and Andrighetto put the puck in the open net
at 6:48.
Foligno made it 5-3 with his successful penalty shot.
Galchenyuk made up for his mistake two minutes later with his second
goal of the night. Like his earlier goal, Galchenyuk ripped a slap
shot from the right circle on the power play to make it 5-4 with 22
seconds left in the second.
It wasn't enough, though -- the Canadiens dominated possession in
the Buffalo end in the third period but were unable to come up with
an equalizer.
Kane ended the comeback with an empty-net goal with 54.7 seconds
remaining that came with some controversy. A clearance by O'Reilly
deflected off linesman Brad Kovachik and fell directly to Kane, who
made it 6-4. Subban was visibly upset by the deflection and was
given a misconduct penalty.
"I just don't know what you're supposed to do as a player there,"
Subban said. "Obviously, whether it's a mistake or not, you're in
the way, blow the play down. Make it honest. Put the puck at center
ice. ... I don't know what I'm supposed to do or what any of my
teammates are supposed to do."
In a season that's been littered with bad breaks and bad bounces,
the Sabres, naturally, felt differently.
"That's kind of what it felt like, like -- finally, one going our
way," Bylsma said.
NOTES: LW Johan Larsson, D Mark Pysyk and D Mike Weber were
scratched for the Sabres. D Nathan Beaulieu and LW Jacob De La Rose
were scratched for the Canadiens. ... Sabres rookie Dan Catenacci
was placed on injured reserve earlier Friday after taking a hit to
the head in Thursday's loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. The Sabres
recalled C Philip Varone from the AHL's Rochester Americans to fill
the open roster spot. At the time of his promotion, Varone was tied
for the Americans' lead in points with 26 (12 goals, 14 assists).
... This was the third of five meetings between the teams this
season. The next meeting takes place March 10 in Montreal.
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