Montreal scores four unanswered goals in a 6-3 win at KeyBank Center on Thursday
The Buffalo Sabres are facing elimination following a head-scratching effort in a 6-3 loss to the Montreal Canadiens in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Semi-Final on Thursday. The Sabres appeared to have Habs goalie Jakub Dobes on the ropes in a wild first period that saw Buffalo beat him three times on seven shots, but they were unable to chase him from the game and Montreal was able to stabilize and turn the tables on the Sabres and starter Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.
After an excellent effort in a 3-2 win in Game 4, Luukkonen was shaky in the second period, allowing three goals by Josh Anderson, Jake Evans and Nick Suzuki, and after allowing five goals on 23 shots, he was pulled in favor of Alex Lyon to start the third. Once again, Buffalo’s core players had a negative impact on the game, as top liners Tage Thompson and Alex Tuch were -2 on the night, and both Thompson and team captain Rasmus Dahlin took careless minor penalties that resulted in power play goals.
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Head coach Lindy Ruff spoke to the media on Friday before departing for Montreal:
Did you have anything further on Owen Power?
He's in right now getting treatment. All I can offer is he said he's feeling pretty good, better than he thought he would feel. So that' sencouraging.
What goes into goalie decisions, to pull goalies, which one to play, etc?
We meet as a staff, we meet with (goalie coach Mike) Bales as part of the group. Sometimes other factors can be involved, maybe one goal is fatigued, maybe one goalie has got a little something going on, all those things come into consideration when your with your starting goaltender.
Montreal’s top guys were feeling the heat for a while there before they finally got going, now it's your top guys that are feeling it. What are you seeing from what they're doing, and what do you need more from them?
The execution of trying to make a difference, when you look at the game being 3-2 and Thompson walks in alone, it could have been a difference maker. He scores there, its 4-2 (and) we're pretty happy. Krebs in the second period walked down the slot, almost the same as like (he did against) Boston, and we didn't put it in the back of the net, but this is the time of year where you get the opportunities, you have to take advantage. I think you look at the big mistake we made, we give (Cole) Caufield the back door, (and) basically an empty net, and when a team makes a big mistake like that, you, you need to take advantage of it.
How has Tage Thompson handled the playoff pressure?
I guess when you look at it, it's an experience that he hasn't really gone through. I think there are momentum swings in your top players. I mean, we just mentioned Montreal's top players, and long stretch of not scoring (at) even strength. And then you'll get that opportunity to make a difference. You've got to be able to make a difference. We know this time there's the heightened awareness on all your top players, every opportunity, every mistake is being critiqued. We've gone through the game as coaches with some things we feel we can do better. There's some things we feel we can help our top guys out with, and you got to be able to put the game behind you that you just played and be ready to move on to that next one. I looked at the start of our game, it's the start we wanted, and we made a big mistake. I thought we had them up against the wall to start with, and we made a puck decision that wasn't a good puck decision, and we created some life and momentum for them.
When you address this club, how much do you have to kind of live off of what you did in Game 4 or what Tampa did in Game 6, going into Montreal and winning?
I think we had the right approach, with the way we started the game, and how well I thought we were keeping away from good opportunities in our end. The strength of our team really for most of the year has been the ability to get a lead and keep a lead, we didn't do that last night, obviously, but I think stay with your strength. I even thought the start of the third period, couple great opportunities that we didnt take advantage of again. There were a lot of opportunities inside that third period to get right back into the hockey game, but you got to make plays, and some of the plays sometimes don't turn out to be good plays, but we can't live on those plays. We got to be willing to just go all in to win a game, and I know some of the guys haven't been there before.
The Sabres did not practice or come to the arena, and may not have a morning skate in Montreal before Game 6 on Saturday night at the Bell Centre.
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