Montreal, Quebec (WGR 550) – Buffalo Sabres goalie Devon Levi has gone "home" twice this season, and ended up playing his best two games of his rookie campaign.
He first went back to Boston on Dec. 7, where he spent his college career at Northeastern University, and beat the Bruins, 3-1.
Then on Thursday, Levi went back to where he grew up in Montreal for the first time, playing his first game at the Bell Centre and earning a 6-1 victory over the Canadiens.
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Levi became the youngest Sabres goalie to record 32 or more saves while allowing one or fewer goals since Tom Barrasso did so in January of 1987.
The 22-year-old was spectacular, starting right away when Canadiens winger Brendan Gallagher was allowed to cut in on him alone. After that, he absolutely robbed Jesse Ylonen not once, but twice right on the goal line.
Levi had 15 first period saves, while the Sabres hit a post, a crossbar and had 13 shots on Canadiens netminder Jake Allen.
Just 2:06 into the second period, Joel Armia scored thanks to a screen from Michael Pezzetta, but the problem was Pezzetta ran into Levi and the goal was disallowed after a Don Granato challenge.
Coming into the game, Buffalo had only scored two power play goals in 12 games, but in this game, they netted two in a 1:29 span.
On the first one, Jeff Skinner sent a perfect pass to Casey Mittelstadt on the off side post, and the second one was Alex Tuch finding Skinner, who beat Allen from an off angle.
That gave the Sabres a 2-0 lead, but it was the power play that cut their lead in half too.
Rasmus Dahlin was very casual with the puck at his own blue line, and Armia stripped him off the puck, and added insult to injury by setting Dahlin up to screen Levi. It was 2-1, Buffalo, thanks to that shorthanded goal.
The Sabres never stopped working and added four goals in the third period. Tage Thompson had two, while Dahlin and Jack Quinn had the others.
I thought Tuch was a bull in this game. He had two assists on the night, but to watch him outwork four Canadiens while killing a penalty and get the puck to Quinn for a great scoring chance was a thing of beauty.
After that, it looked like the Habs had him squeezed against the wall on the rush, but he just kept his legs moving and bullied his way into the zone to start a forecheck.
Tuch was very noticeable all night, and after the game Granato said his winger wasn’t 100%.
With the exception of Dahlin, Granato’s new defensive pairs played very well. After the first couple of minutes, Mattias Samuelsson had one of his better games lately with Connor Clifton. Erik Johnson also did a good job with Owen Power too.
With the win, Buffalo is now seven points out of the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
Right before the game, Dahlin was named to the NHL All-Star Game for the third-straight time. Despite struggling lately, he does lead all NHL defensemen with 11 goals. He also has 20 assists for 31 points.
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Skinner and JJ Peterka would’ve been my choices ahead of Dahlin.
All-Star Weekend in Toronto is set for Feb. 1-3.
