MONTREAL \u2013 Just when you begin to count them out, these Buffalo Sabres remind you exactly who they are.<\/p>\n
This is the team that charged from last place in December to a division title. A team that has thrived in the face of every playoff \u201cfirst\u201d that\u2019s been thrown its way.<\/p>\n
Add another to the list. Staring down elimination for the first time in these playoffs, the Sabres rallied from an early two-goal deficit and beat the Montreal Canadiens 8-3 at Bell Centre on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The win sets up a deciding Game 7 at KeyBank Center on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, I don\u2019t really think the experience thing is real,\u201d Tage Thompson said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been in a situation all season where people have doubted us, had us out, had our backs against the wall the whole season. It\u2019s no different.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously the stage is a little bigger and the stakes are higher here but at the end of the day, it\u2019s still the same game. So, nothing really changes for us. We\u2019re a good team, we know that. I think that belief in this room is really the only thing that matters.\u201d<\/p>\n
A day that began under pressure-filled circumstances \u2013 win or go home \u2013 only intensified with the start of the game. Rasmus Dahlin scored on the opening shift, but the Canadiens responded with goals on their first three shots, the last of which was scored shorthanded and prompted the Sabres to pull starter Alex Lyon for Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.<\/p>\n
Barely 10 minutes into the game, the Sabres were trailing 3-1 in one of hockey\u2019s most raucous environments. Their backs were against the wall once again.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe actually liked our game to start so it was kind of a \u2018Let\u2019s just stick with it,'” Jason Zucker said. “Keep playing downhill, playing after them and staying on our toes and I thought we did a good job of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jason Zucker\u2019s power-play goal late in the first period began a run of seven consecutive goals by the Sabres, crafting a score sheet littered with Game 6 heroes.<\/p>\n
There was the captain Dahlin, whose 5 points matched the Sabres\u2019 single-game playoff record held by John Tucker and Derek Roy. It was only the 10th five-point playoff game by a defenseman in NHL history.<\/p>\n
There were two power-play goals from Jack Quinn, who\u2019d seen prime chances deflect off the post throughout these playoffs. It was fitting that his first goal went off the post and in, which broke a 3-3 tie midway through the second period and stood as the game winner.<\/p>\n
Zach Benson produced yet another big moment, wrapping behind the Montreal net for the tying goal in the second period. Thompson had an empty-net goal and three assists. Zach Metsa made his playoff debut and scored a late power-play goal.<\/p>\n
Then there was Luukkonen, coming off a disappointing outing in Game 5 at home on Thursday. He stopped all 18 of the shots he faced in 49:41 of action.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MONTREAL \u2013 Just when you begin to count them out, these Buffalo Sabres remind you exactly who they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":676707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-676706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=676706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}