Buffalo, NY (WGR Sports Radio 550) - The Canadiens won the pivotal Game 5 Thursday night in Buffalo. Nick Suzuki had a goal and two assists to lead Montreal in the 6-3 victory. Buffalo now faces elimination for the first time in this year's NHL playoffs on Saturday night in Montreal, trailing in the series 3-2.
---------
The scoring came early and often in the first period with the Sabres jumping out to a 1-0 lead just two minutes into the game as Jack Quinn put the puck on net and it deflected off Jason Zucker for the goal.
Montreal would tie it up minutes later as Nick Suzuki found Cole Caufield crashing the net.
Less than two minutes after Montreal tied the game Josh Doan made it a 2-1 game off a one-timer from the top of the faceoff circle.
That lead would not hold long as the Canadiens scored just :09 seconds later on the next shift as a shot going wide of the net from the point by Alexandre Carrier deflected off the skate of Alexandre Texier to make it a 2-2 game.
The goals kept coming with Konsta Helenius scoring his first career NHL playoff goal as he gathered a loose puck in the slot and put it past Montreal goaltender Jakub Dobes.
Montreal tied the game back up again midway through the second period with Lane Hutson setting up Josh Anderson on a cross-crease pass to make it a 3-3 game.
The Canadiens took their first lead of the game as Jake Evans crashed the crease after an Ivan Demidov shot snuck through Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.
On the next shift, Tage Thompson got called for cross checking and Montreal got their first power play of the game. It didn't take long as Nick Suzuki scored just :10 seconds into the man advantage to make it a 5-3 Montreal lead after two periods of play.
The Sabres made a change in net to start the third period as Alex Lyon came in to replace Luukkonen. Buffalo went back to the penalty kill just two minutes into the period and the Canadiens power play struck again with Ivan Demidov scoring to make it a 6-3 game.
Buffalo went into desperation mode pulling Alex Lyon for the extra attacker in the final six minutes of the game, but that would be it for the scoring as the Canadiens would keep the Sabres off the board to finish off the Game 5 road win, 6-3.
After a solid start in Game 4, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen had a tough night stopping just 18 of 23 shots in two periods of play. Alex Lyon saw minimal action in the third period, seeing only 3 shots and giving up one goal on the power play.
---------
GAME SUMMARY
Scoring Summary:
First Period:
BUF: 2:00 - Jason Zucker (1) (Jack Quinn, Conor Timmins), 7:45 - Josh Doan (3) (Owen Power), 10:15 - Konsta Helenius (1) (Mattias Samuelsson, Rasmus Dahlin)
MTL: 6:31 - Cole Caufield (4) (Nick Suzuki, Juraj Slafkovsky), 7:54 - Alexandre Texier (3) (Alexandre Carrier)
Second Period:
BUF: NONE
MTL: 8:01 - Josh Anderson (3) (Lane Hutson, Phillip Danault), 16:15 - Jake Evans (1) (Ivan Demidov, Alex Newhook), 17:33 - Nick Suzuki (4)(PPG) (Juraj Slafkovsky, Lane Hutson)
Third Period:
BUF: NONE
MTL: 3:32 - Ivan Demidov (1)(PPG) (Juraj Slafkovsky, Nick Suzuki)
---------
---------
Blue Star Home Services Three Stars of the Game:
1.) Nick Suzuki - MTL
2.) Juraj Slafkovsky - MTL
3.) Ivan Demidov - MTL
---------
What's Next: The series heads back to Montreal for Game 6 and an 8:00 p.m. ET puck drop at the Bell Centre. Catch all the action on WGR Sports Radio 550 starting with pregame at 7:00 p.m. ET with Brian Koziol and the radio call from Dan Dunleavy and Martin Biron.
Montreal scores four unanswered goals in 6-3 win over Buffalo
Montreal scores four unanswered goals in 6-3 win over Buffalo
