Montreal, Quebec (WGR Sports Radio 550) - Despite a valiant comeback, it was an early dug hole that did the Buffalo Sabres in on Monday night in Montreal.
Visiting the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre, the Sabres erased a three-goal deficit with late heroics, but ultimately fell short of completing the comeback in overtime, 4-3.
The first period was nightmare fuel for the Sabres.
Buffalo took five penalties in the opening 20 minutes, four of which resulted in power play opportunities for the Canadiens. Montreal made Buffalo pay on two of its man advantage opportunities.
Also sandwiched in-between the power play tallies came a shorthanded goal, as Buffalo's special teams units struggled from the jump.
Forward Cole Caufield opened the scoring at the halfway point of the frame. His quick snapshot to the right of James Reimer made it 1-0, Canadiens.
Two minutes later, forward Nick Suzuki got rolling and scored the shorthanded marker for the Canadiens. It was the Montreal captain's 19th goal of the campaign.
The barrage continued two more minutes later when Juraj Slafkovsky was the beneficiary of a fortuitous bounce off Sabres defenseman Connor Clifton in front of the Buffalo net. That goal helped Montreal build a 3-0 lead heading into the locker room.
Late in the second period, the Sabres finally got on the board and closed the gap to two.
Dylan Cozens drove hard to the net, and caused a juicy rebound off the pad of goalie Samuel Montembeault. Alex Tuch was in the right spot to send home Buffalo's first goal of the game to make it 3-1, Montreal.
Buffalo pulled to within one just three-and-a-half minutes into the third period when Tage Thompson crept closer to another 30-goal campaign with a 99 mph rocket above the left faceoff circle.
Then with 61 seconds left in regulation, the Sabres netted the equalizer.
With Reimer on the bench for the extra attacker for Buffalo, captain Rasmus Dahlin was able to find open space and fire a shot into the Canadiens net to tie the game at 3-3. The goal was Dahlin's 10th goal of the year.
Both sides escaped the final minute unscathed and readied for a 3-on-3 overtime.
The extra period only lasted 1:21, though, as Canadiens defenseman Mike Matheson fired a shot off a 2-on-1 rush that beat Reimer low past his left pad.
The Sabres battled to earn one point, but were unable to secure the second in overtime, as the Canadiens completed the four-game season series sweep of Buffalo.
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SCORING RECAP
First Period:
BUF: NONE
MTL: 9:42 - Cole Caufield (30) PPG (Nick Suzuki, Lane Hutson; 11:41 - Nick Suzuki (19) SHG (Mike Matheson); 13:42 - Juraj Slafkovsky (11) PPG (Nick Suzuki, Lane Hutson)
Second Period:
BUF: 18:07 - Alex Tuch (23) (Dylan Cozens, Dennis Gilbert)
MTL: NONE
Third Period:
BUF: 3:24 - Tage Thompson (29) (JJ Peterka, Beck Malenstyn); 18:59 - Rasmus Dahlin (10) (JJ Peterka, Jiri Kulich)
MTL: NONE
Overtime:
BUF: NONE
MTL: 1:21 - Mike Matheson (5) (Juraj Slafkovsky, Nick Suzuki)
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Three Stars of the Game:
1.) Nick Suzuki - MTL
2.) Mike Matheson - MTL
3.) JJ Peterka - BUF
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What's next:
The Sabres return home on Tuesday night to host the San Jose Sharks at KeyBank Center. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. with Dan Dunleavy and Rob Ray on the call.