Sabres force Game 7 after shaky start in Montreal

Montreal, Quebec (WGR Sports Radio 550) - With their season on the line Saturday night, the Buffalo Sabres righted the ship and turned an early 3-1 deficit on its head, and into an 8-3 win in Game 6 of their second-round Stanley Cup Playoffs series with the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre.

Just like in Game 3, the Sabres potted a goal inside the first minute of the game. This time, it was captain Rasmus Dahlin leading by example, as he danced down deep and beat Canadiens goalie Jakub Dobes with a backhand to make it 1-0, Buffalo.

Just over a minute later, though, Montreal responded when defenseman Arber Xhekaj beat Sabres goalie Alex Lyon clean with a point shot to tie the score at 1-1.

With 8:12 gone in the first, the Canadiens took their first lead of the night.

Canadiens forward Ivan Demidov hammered a one-timer on a power play to make it a 2-1 lead for Montreal. It was just the second shot against Lyon, and both hit the back of the net.

A little over two minutes after Demidov's tally, Canadiens forward Jake Evans got loose and potted a shorthanded goal to give Montreal a two-goal advantage in front of the home crowd. He snuck a shot past Lyon on the blocker side, and ended the netminder's night in the process.

After making just one save of four shots faced, Lyon was replaced in net by Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.

Now faced with a 3-1 deficit in an elimination game, a response was almost imperative for the Sabres. They got one in the form of Jason Zucker.

On the back end of a four-minute power play, center Josh Norris located the veteran winger with a cross-crease pass to pull the Sabres back within one.

The momentum carried over into the middle stanza for Buffalo, as the team came out buzzing again to start the second period.

The buzzing turned into goal-scoring just 60 seconds in, courtesy of Zach Benson. The winger found his fifth goal of the playoffs sitting behind Dobes, as the goalie didn't know where a loose puck was. Benson did, and evened the score amidst a hushed crowd in Montreal.

Buffalo vaulted themselves back in the lead near the halfway point of the period, thanks to a guy who's been skatebitten all postseason long.

While on the power play, winger Jack Quinn scored his long-awaited first-career playoff goal to give the Sabres their first lead since the 1:39 mark of the first period, 4-3.

The Sabres weren't done there, though.

Just over two minutes after Quinn's goal, center Konsta Helenius got in on the second-period barrage, as he and Zucker teamed up for a nifty scoring play to keep the tides turning at 5-3, Buffalo.

It was more of the same in the third period of play. The onslaught rolled along with three more Sabres tallies, which eventually eradicated the crowd of red around them in hostile territory.

It started at the halfway point of the period, when Quinn made it a 6-3 Buffalo lead with an incredible shot for, yet, another power play goal.

That spelled the end of the night for Dobes, who was pulled from the net by Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis for backup Jacob Fowler.

Fowler wasn't in the net very long before he was motioned back to the bench for an extra skater. Trailing 6-3, Montreal was in a similar situation that Buffalo was in just two nights before.

With just under six minutes left in regulation, Tage Thompson sent any home fans pining for a comeback to the exits when he nailed an empty-netter from his own defensive zone.

Anyone that stuck around until the end got to see a nice moment for defenseman Zach Metsa.

In his playoff debut, he snuck a shot through Fowler for Buffalo's eighth goal of the night, and fourth on the power play to put a bow on a statement of a Game 6 victory in hostile territory.

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SCORING RECAP:

First Period:
BUF: 0:32 - Rasmus Dahlin (3) (Mattias Samuelsson, Zach Benson); 13:56 - Jason Zucker (2) PPG (Josh Norris, Jack Quinn)
MTL: 1:40 - Arber Xhekaj (1) (Jake Evans); 8:12 - Ivan Demidov (2) PPG (Lane Hutson, Cole Caufield); 10:14 - Jake Evans (2) SHG (Mike Matheson)

Second Period:
BUF: 1:00 - Zach Benson (5) (Tage Thompson, Bowen Byram); 10:54 - Jack Quinn (1) PPG (Rasmus Dahlin, Tage Thompson); 12:59 - Konsta Helenius (2) (Jason Zucker, Rasmus Dahlin)
MTL: NONE

Third Period:
BUF: 9:58 - Jack Quinn (2) PPG (Tage Thompson, Rasmus Dahlin); 14:12 - Tage Thompson (5) ENG (Unassisted); 17:49 - Zach Metsa (1) PPG (Ryan McLeod, Rasmus Dahlin)
MTL: NONE

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STATS OF THE GAME:

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BlueStar Home Services Three Stars of the Game:

1.) Rasmus Dahlin - BUF
2.) Jack Quinn - BUF
3.) Tage Thompson - BUF

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What's next:

A do-or-die Game 7 takes place on Monday night back in Buffalo at KeyBank Center. Puck drop is slated for just after 7:30 pm with Dan Dunleavy and Rob Ray on the call on WGR Sports Radio 550.