The Montreal Canadiens dominated every aspect of the game on Sunday night, on their way to a 6-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres.
The Montreal Canadiens took to the Bell Centre ice for the first time since eliminating the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday night when they hosted the Buffalo Sabres for Game 3 of their second-round series. While each team had won a game in Buffalo, the momentum was definitely with the Canadiens, given how dominant they were in their 5-1 win on Friday night, and they picked up right where they left off with a 6-2 win on Sunday night.
With 50 minutes to go before puck drop, the seats were already filling up nicely, and fans were warming up with “Go Habs Go” chants, a prelude to how electric the building would be. With a building packed to the rafters, it was former captain Kirk Muller who carried the torch in the Bell Center to thunderous applause.
Missed Chances Galore
Despite the noisy crowd, it was the Sabres who drew first blood with Tage Thompson finding the back of the net off a missed Cole Caufield clearance. While that would have quieted down a lot of building around the league, it wasn’t the case on Sunday night, and the Habs faithful remained just as noisy.
From then on, the Canadiens forechecked relentlessly and took over the first frame. They had several great opportunities alone and up close with Alex Lyon. The Sabres goalie, who wasn’t very proactive in Game 2, cut a dangerous feed that was going straight to Nick Suzuki, who was alone in acres of space. The puck still got to him, but he had to take some time to steady it before taking a shot that Lyon saved.
The captain got another chance on the power play. He got the puck in the bumper position but couldn’t unleash a shot. Caufield also got a chance in close, just like Veleno did. Lyon had an answer to everything until Alex Newhook scored on a rebound, his fourth goal in as many games. He would also go on to add another one, in an empty net in the dying minutes.
No Love Lost
Unsurprisingly, the game started just like Game 2 ended with plenty of hits, slashes and other shenanigans. Some calls were missed on both sides, including an elbow to Lane Hutson’s head, but the most worrying came when Zach Benson sent Juraj Slafkovsky headfirst into the boards.
Both goalies also saw some action they would rather not have seen. Beck Malenstyn was sent to the box for two minutes for goaltender interference after literally flying into Jakub Dobes, while Joe Veleno avoided a penalty call when he landed skates-first into Lyon.
Unsurprisingly, there were a lot of scrums in the dying minutes, and chances are we’ll see more rough stuff in Game 4.
Caufield Finally Found The Back Of The Net Again
After missing multiple golden chances, including one where he was in the blue paint with an open net, the Canadiens’ sniper finally got his second goal of the playoffs. It came on the power play, but the diminutive winger won’t complain about that; the relief in his face spoke for itself. Speaking after the game, Martin St-Louis said:
It’s not down to luck that Cole is a 50-goal scorer. If he had scored on more chances this season, he could have scored 60. He’s going to get his scoring chances, and he’ll miss some, but I’m not worried about Cole Caufield scoring goals in the playoffs.
Later in the second frame, Juraj Slafkovsky also found the back of the net on the power play by deflecting a Lane Hutson shot. That was the big Slovak’s fourth postseason power play goal; he now only needs two more to tie Jacques Lemaire’s franchise record. The goal came after a high-sticking call on Alex Tuch, which Slafkovsky drew himself, before heading to the Sabres bench to do a bit of chirping.
After the game, Lindy Ruff was asked what his team had to do to get better results, and he replied:
We have to be smarter. You know, we took five offensive zone penalties. Our discipline for that wasn’t good enough.
Even though his goaltender allowed five goals, the coach refused to hang anything on his door:
He was very good all night. I’ll stop you right there. He was very good all night; there was nothing about Alex Lyon in this game.
Game 4 is scheduled for 7:00 PM on Tuesday, and the Sabres will be desperate to bounce back; another loss would give the Canadiens a commanding lead in the series. After three games, Montreal has outscored Buffalo 13-7, and Ruff’s men will have to find a way to stop the hemorrhage if they want to have a chance to come back into this series.
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