Caufield gave the Canadiens a 2-1 lead at 14:01. Slafkovsky got his second straight assist with a pass from behind the net to set up Caufield, who snapped a quick shot past Luukkonen.

Texier made it 3-1 at 7:39 of the second period when he put away his own rebound after he tipped Kaiden Guhle’s point shot. Carrier had the secondary assist for a second straight goal.

“I thought our start was good,” Thompson said. “We give them the power play, they score on it and they get a little bit of life. You can’t do that to good teams. That’s the way their big boys get going and start to feel the puck and get some confidence.”

Quinn scored the Sabres’ first short-handed goal of the season at 9:52 to cut the lead to 3-2.

Thompson tied it 3-3 at 10:12 of the third period. He scored on a backdoor pass from Josh Doan, who spun around on the outside of the right circle to set up Thompson for a shot behind Fowler stick side.

“A great look to the back post,” Thompson said about Doan’s assist.

Suzuki had the only shot on goal during a two-man advantage for 45 seconds in the second period when Zach Benson was called for elbowing Caufield at 15:35 with Dennis Gilbert already in the penalty box.

“It was 3-1 then? It would have been nice to put the nail in the coffin there,” St. Louis said. “But Buffalo is not an easy team to play when you have a lead. They open up their game a lot and you have to be calculated with your decisions. Even in the offensive zone, you can’t make ‘almost’ plays. The ‘almosts’ are the plays that they live for. They’re hoping you make an ‘almost,’ and then it goes the other way.”

NOTES: Forward Oliver Kapanen made his season debut for Montreal after being injured in the preseason and had three shots on goal in 11:40. … Defenseman David Reinbacher, Montreal’s first-round pick (No. 5) in the 2023 NHL Draft, played 9:09 his third NHL game and first of the season. … Caufield’s 14th overtime goal tied him with Kirill Kaprizov and Sebastian Aho for the most in the NHL since Caufield debuted in the 2020-21 season. He also tied Connor McDavid for the most in NHL history at age 25 or younger. … Caufield had four points (three goals, one assist) in the two games against the Sabres this week. … Quinn has seven points (three goals, four assists) in his past four games. … Thompson scored his 218th goal with the Sabres to move past Jason Pominville for 10th place in team history.