Sabres beat Canadiens in Game 1 behind strength of power play

buffalo – took it buffalo saber 14 years to get back to the NHL playoffs – and they’ve finally brought their power play with them.

buffalo lost montreal 4-2 Game 1 of their second-round Eastern Conference playoff series on Wednesday produced a multigoal show with an extra man, something the Sabers haven’t been able to accomplish since last March 31 with two power-play markers.

Since March, the Sabers went 0-20 on the man advantage to finish the regular season and were a surprisingly poor 1-of-24 on the power play in the first-round series against them. boston. Clearly, Buffalo was tired of hearing about the disappointing performance of its special teams.

“I mean, that’s part of it, right?” josh don Said to change the narrative. “This is a [goal] That series is over, and we already have two in this series. So, it’s going well. And obviously it’s been hit-or-miss late in the year, and tonight was one of those nights where we had to get the puck back more in recovery. We were losing a lot of battles and a lot of easy battles, but it’s a credit to [our guys] To pull.”

Buffalo controlled Game 1 from the jump, and Doan was a key part of that. He gave the Sabers a 1-0 lead early in the first period. Ryan McLeod It increased it to 2–0 with Buffalo’s first power-play goal midway through the frame (on which Doan assisted).

canadiens captain nick suzukiMarker got his team on the board with less than a minute to go in the opening frame, but the Sabers quickly restored their multigoal lead when Jordan Greenway The lamp was lit for the second three and a half minutes.

bowen byram However, Buffalo recorded his fourth goal of the postseason on a power play attempt in the second period. Kirby Dutch With a goal at the end of the frame to make things interesting, a scoreless final period kept the Sabers in line for the win.

“We took advantage of some good breaks,” coach Lindy Ruff said of Buffalo’s power-play success. “We made some good plays.”

Alex Lyon Was – and has been – a key factor in the Sabers reaching their current peak. it was Ukko-Pekka LuukkonenWas the backup to start the series against Boston, but when Luukkonen faltered – with an .825 save percentage through the first two games – Lyon emerged as a savior.

Since replacing Luukkonen late in Game 2 of the first round, Lyon is 4-1 as the Sabres’ starter with a .950 save percentage.

But despite Buffalo scoring well in several categories against the Canadiens, Ruff wants to see more from his players ahead of Game 2 on Friday — especially since they’ve had plenty of time to rest since finishing the Boston series nearly a week ago.

“Three to four days off affected people in different ways,” Ruff said. “You get some good practices and some guys came out really good. I think other guys were a step behind in my eyes. Overall, I thought some of our puck decisions were better. There’s some situations in the game where we gave them a little bit of momentum.”

The Sabers dug into their own depth Wednesday night. Buffalo suppressed most of Montreal’s top talent with equal strength, and although the Sabres’ stars did not register on the scoresheet, their third-line performers such as Doan and zach benson – with two points each – were the difference makers.

Ruff knows how valuable those contributions are, especially seeing how the Canadiens’ top line didn’t record a single strong goal until Game 7 of the first round and were silent again in that category on Wednesday.

“Those big goals [by Montreal in the first round] It wasn’t done by the bigger players,” Ruff said. “And I think that’s the strength of our team. This has been the strength of our team all year. We can put numbers on them. But I think on nights where sometimes your best players are taken care of or don’t have their best night, we have another line that has stepped up … and that’s what we saw tonight.”

Sabers have some injury concerns as captain Rasmus Dahlin left the ice after blocking a shot jake evans At the end of the third period. It appeared to be a knee problem that caused Dahlin to limp back to the dressing room, but he returned to the bench area.

Ruff said Dahlin “seemed fine” as he walked down the hallway after the game but acknowledged there had been no discussions with the medical staff yet.

For Canadians, Wednesday’s result was a single solution they can move forward from. Coach Martin St. Louis already thought he could recognize progress from the first-round series Tampa BayAnd he expressed confidence that there will be better players from his group in Game 2.

“What I liked was that it was a completely different experience than Tampa,” St. Louis said. “I thought our top guys got more touches and space and that’s what I liked. You have to manage the puck in the O-zone. Having a lot of 50-50 battles, you have to be on the right side of it … and we have to do better there, too. But I like that we struggled.

“It wasn’t the start we wanted in the game and the series. But we’ll keep moving forward.”