Had he ever scored a goal like that at any level, Thompson was asked afterward.
“No, not like that, but I’ll take it,” he replied.
“We didn’t get in the first couple break-ins on the power play and you do that sometimes,” he continued. “You want to just keep it simple, rim it, and try to get on the forecheck. I rimmed it and obviously saw it hit the glass and saw, kind of just scanned around looking for it and then a few guys put their hands up.
“So it’s a nice feeling when you see that.”
Not for the Canadiens.
“It (stinks),” forward Cole Caufield said. “Honestly, I thought we played a pretty good game. Obviously, there’s some things we can get better at, but seeing a fluke going in like that, it’s obviously not the bounce you want.”
Make no mistake. There were still 33 minutes remaining in the game after Thompson’s goal at 7:00 of the second knotted the game at 2-2, plenty of time for Montreal to get its mojo back.
But thanks in part to the 28-save performance of Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, who was starting for the first time since Game 2 of the Sabres’ first round series against the Boston Bruins, it was Buffalo that went on to win the game and took back home-ice advantage in the series.
Ironically, in that same game against Boston, Luukkonen also allowed a long-distance goal from the neutral zone, that one a backhand by the Bruins’ Morgan Geekie that helped them go on to win 4-2. Alex Lyon started the next seven games for Buffalo before coach Lindy Ruff turned back to Luukkonen on Tuesday.
This time he, himself, was the benefactor of his own team scoring a weird goal from distance.
Let’s see how far, if at all, it propels the Sabres and hinders the Canadiens moving forward.
NHL.com senior writer Amalie Benjamin contributed to this report