Despite grabbing an early lead, the Buffalo Sabres fell flat once again on home ice, this time to the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday night by a final score of 3-1 at KeyBank Center.
Jack Eichel was able to score his 30th goal of the season in the first period, but the Canadiens responded in the second period with two goals from forwards Ilya Kovalchuk and Brendan Gallagher to take the lead for good.
After getting off to a good start and outshooting the Canadiens 11-8 in the opening period, Buffalo's attack faded and ended up getting outshot 22-10 in the final 40 minutes of play.
The Sabres were given their first chance on the power play at the 6:49 mark of the first when Canadiens forward Joel Armia took a tripping penalty at the Montreal blue line. It took Buffalo just 22 seconds to convert as Eichel accepted a pass from defenseman Rasmus Dahlin and wired the puck past Montreal goalie Carey Price. The Buffalo captain became the first Sabres player to reach the 30-goal mark and the 30-assist mark in the same season since Jason Pominville did so in the 2011-12 season.
The Sabres came out with a much better effort to start the game on Thursday than they did on Tuesday, and even held a 9-0 shot advantage through the first half of the game.
However, the Canadiens started the second period strong and found the equalizer less than a minute in. With just 44 seconds gone in the period, Kovalchuk scored his eighth goal of the season as he corralled a loose puck and snuck it high over Hutton's glove to make it a 1-1 contest.
Just 2:21 later, Montreal took the lead when Gallagher scored his 16th goal of the season as he got in behind the Sabres defense and found himself alone to the left of Hutton.
That 2-1 deficit stood through 40 minutes of play as the Canadiens continued to take play to the Sabres in a momentum-changing way. Montreal went on to outshoot Buffalo 22-5 from the halfway point of the first period through the end of the second.
Both teams hit a lull in the final period of regulation as they totaled just five shots each through the first 16 minutes of action. The Sabres had a good chance to tie the game as Candiens forward Phillip Danault sat in the box for a hooking penalty, but they were unable to generate opportunities on their power play.
Gallagher had a chance to score his second goal of the night with 3:52 left in the game when he was sprung for a partial breakaway. He skated down the right-wing side on Hutton, but his backhand try was swallowed by the goaltender as he came out to challenge the forward searching for his second goal of the night.
Two minutes later, the Canadiens put the game out of reach as Tomas Tatar netted an empty-net goal with 1:47 left in regulation.
GAME SUMMARY
Goal Summary:
First Period:
BUF: 7:11 - Jack Eichel (30) PPG (Rasmus Dahlin, Marcus Johansson)MTL: NONE
Second Period:
BUF: NONEMTL: 0:44 - Ilya Kovalchuk (8) (Nick Suzuki, Joel Armia); 3:05 - Brendan Gallagher (16) (Tomas Tatar, Phillip Danault)
Third Period:
BUF: NONEMTL: 18:13 - Tomas Tatar (18) ENG (Nick Suzuki, Joel Armia)
Penalty Summary:
First Period:
BUF: 16:13 - Conor Sheary (Holding - 2 min.)MTL: 6:49 - Joel Armia (Tripping - 2 min.)
Second Period:
BUF: NONEMTL: 16:55 - Artturi Lehkonen (Holding - 2 min.)
Third Period:
BUF: NONEMTL: 13:02 - Phillip Danault (Hooking - 2 min.)
Strategic Financial Solutions Stats of the Game:
Shots on Goal:
BUF: 21 (11, 3, 7)MTL: 30 (8, 14, 8)
Goalies:
BUF: Carter Hutton - 27 savesMTL: Carey Price - 20 saves
Power Plays:
BUF: 1 for 3 (33%)MTL: 0 for 1 (0%)
Three Stars presented by Losi and Gangi:
- Brendan Gallagher - MTL
- Ilya Kovalchuk - MTL
- Nick Suzuki - MTL
What's Next:
The Sabres will play the third game of their five-game homestand on Saturday afternoon against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Faceoff at KeyBank Center is set for 1 p.m. with the Paul William Beltz Pregame Show starting at noon on WGR with Brian Koziol.
