BUFFALO, N.Y. \u2014 A Saturday night at the Bell Centre with a chance to clinch the series, you say?<\/p>\n
The Montreal Canadiens can book their ticket to the Eastern Conference final Saturday night in what will be absolute bedlam in that arena after taking care of business on the road yet again.<\/p>\n
Josh Anderson, Jake Evans and Nick Suzuki scored in the second period Thursday night to rally the Canadiens to a 6-3 win over the Buffalo Sabres in Game 5 before a stunned KeyBank Center crowd.<\/p>\n
Montreal improved to 5-2 on the road this postseason. The Canadiens also improved to 5-0 in these Stanley Cup playoffs in games immediately following a loss, and overall, they\u2019re now 10-0 after a defeat going back to the regular season.<\/p>\n
If the Carolina Hurricanes were watching, they surely were licking their lips at how both teams defended on this night, especially in the first period and a half. The game began with Buffalo scoring on three of its first four shots, as Jason Zucker, Josh Doan and Konsta Helenius beat shaky Canadiens goaltender Jakub Dobe\u0161.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first period was very chaotic. Very chaotic,\u201d Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. \u201cLeaving Dobe\u0161 in, you have to remove the emotion. We talked to our goalie coach Marco (Marciano) and asked for his opinion. He said to leave him in. So we decided to do that. Dobe\u0161 proved it was the right decision. He played an excellent game after that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The middle period began with the Sabres seemingly in full control, buzzing shift after shift in the Habs\u2019 end in the opening four minutes as Montreal struggled to defend in its own zone.<\/p>\n
The turning point may have been when Sabres center Tage Thompson skated in alone but was stopped by Dobe\u0161 3:46 into the second period. That could have broken the game open for the Sabres by giving them a 4-2 lead, but the rookie Habs netminder said no.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe save by Dobe\u0161 on Thompson on the breakaway,\u201d St. Louis said, was indeed the turning point for him. \u201cAfter that, we started to flip the momentum.\u201d<\/p>\n
That spurred on a Montreal rally as Anderson, Evans and Suzuki, the latter on the power play, scored as the Canadiens went to the dressing room up 5-3.<\/p>\n
You could hear a pin drop at KeyBank Center, where the Sabres are 2-4 this postseason after putting together a 26-10-5 home record in the regular season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the playoffs are a different animal,\u201d Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. \u201cI\u2019ve mentioned friends, family, everything. Not saying that\u2019s what it is; I don\u2019t know that for sure. But our road play has been better. And if our road play is what we need to carry us through this, then we go to Montreal and we win a game, and we come back. And when we come back, we\u2019re gonna pretend we\u2019re on the road.\u201d<\/p>\n
The barrage also led to a goalie change as Alex Lyon replaced Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen to start the third period.<\/p>\n
Ivan Demidov, Cole Caufield and Alexandre Texier also scored for the Canadiens, who also got three assists from winger Juraj Slafkovsk\u00fd.<\/p>\n
After their 1-for-7 power play in Game 4 was a major reason the Canadiens lost Tuesday night, the Habs went 2-for-2 with the man advantage in Game 5, as their electric power play looked healthy again.<\/p>\n
St. Louis\u2019 faith in Dobe\u0161 rewarded<\/p>\n
After Dobe\u0161 allowed goals on three straight shots and had one save on four shots midway through the first period, it would have been justified for St. Louis to ask some questions. That would have been especially true with just how ugly that third goal was, with Helenius spinning and shooting the puck cleanly through Dobe\u0161\u2019 legs from 30 feet out.<\/p>\n
But St. Louis stuck with Dobe\u0161, who stared down a future Hall of Famer in Andrei Vasilevskiy in the first round to get the Canadiens to this point. The coach\u2019s loyalty was rewarded, with Dobe\u0161 stopping all 32 shots he saw the rest of the way and allowing the Canadiens to catch their breath and get back in the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told him, \u2018Thank you for leaving me in,’\u201d Dobe\u0161 said of his coach not pulling him. \u201cTrying to prove myself, it\u2019s a big part of it, having the trust of your coach. I will never disrespect it. I appreciate it. The only thing I was trying to do is give momentum back to the team and tried to keep it tight. And it worked out. \u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt fortunate and lucky that I could finish the game and win this one with the team. At the end of the day, we won, everything is good, and we\u2019re excited to go back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dobe\u0161\u2019 biggest save came on a Thompson breakaway in the fourth minute of the second period with the Sabres leading 3-2. The Canadiens tied it on Anderson\u2019s third goal of the playoffs a few minutes later.<\/p>\n
The rough start was a new test for the Canadiens\u2019 rookie netminder, who had to shake it off, battle through it and find his game to give his team a chance. Just like every other test Dobe\u0161 has faced in these playoffs, he passed with flying colors. \u2014 Arpon Basu, Canadiens writer<\/p>\n
Another goalie change in Buffalo<\/p>\n
Luukkonen gave the Sabres a strong performance in a Game 4 win in Montreal, stopping 29 of 31 shots. But Game 5 was a different story. Luukkonen had some nice moments, including a highlight-reel save on Demidov in the second period. But he also let in a soft goal when a Demidov shot snuck through him, allowing Evans to tap in Montreal\u2019s fourth goal. By the end of the second period, Luukkonen had allowed five goals on 23 shots. Four of those came on high-danger chances, according to Natural Stat Trick, so it wasn\u2019t all on Luukkonen. He finished with 18 saves on 23 shots before the Sabres went back to Lyon for the third period.<\/p>\n
The Sabres have rotated between Luukkonen and Lyon all season. That has continued in the postseason. Now that Lyon has had a few days off, the Sabres should go back to him facing elimination in Game 6. He\u2019s been the stronger goalie in the playoffs, and the Sabres can\u2019t afford another off night from Luukkonen. \u2014 Matthew Fairburn, Sabres writer<\/p>\n
Canadiens\u2019 top line breaks the goose egg<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard to believe, but the line of Suzuki, Caufield and Slafkovsk\u00fd had not scored a goal at five-on-five in these entire playoffs until Caufield\u2019s goal at 6:31 of the first period.<\/p>\n
Ironically, it came in a game where the line was basically buried at five-on-five, primarily by the Sabres\u2019 line of Zach Benson, Josh Norris and Doan. Suzuki\u2019s line dominated that matchup in Game 4 to the tune of an 11-0 advantage in shot attempts with Suzuki and Norris on the ice, but that was not the case in Game 5.<\/p>\n
Not even close.<\/p>\n
Shot attempts at five-on-five with Suzuki and Norris on the ice in Game 5 were 29-12 Sabres.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose three guys are really good players, they contribute a lot, they have good sticks, they\u2019re good off the rush and deep in our zone,\u201d Suzuki said of the Norris line. \u201cI thought we defended pretty well. It\u2019s nice to contribute five-on-five as a line; Cole and Slaf were pretty fired up about that. But we know we can still be a little better. Just keep playing the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Caufield goal was his fourth of the playoffs, and he has now scored in three straight games. Suzuki scored on the power play and added two assists, and Slafkovsk\u00fd had three assists. Suzuki and Slafkovsk\u00fd matched their playoff career highs with three points apiece.<\/p>\n
The Canadiens\u2019 top line finally appears to be heating up. \u2014 Basu<\/p>\n
Where is Buffalo\u2019s top line?<\/p>\n
The Sabres\u2019 top line has been missing in action this series. After he was plus-8 with 7 points in the first round against Boston, Alex Tuch has zero points in this series and is minus-8. Thompson has two goals and two assists in this series but is still minus-9. Peyton Krebs also doesn\u2019t have a point and is minus-5 this round. That\u2019s obviously nowhere near good enough for what is supposed to be the Sabres\u2019 best line. The Benson-Norris-Doan line has been carrying the team offensively while handling some tough matchups on top of it.<\/p>\n
Thompson had a chance to break this game open on a breakaway and made one move too many before Dobe\u0161 stopped him. Thompson then took a cross-checking penalty late in the second period, and it led to Montreal\u2019s fifth goal when Suzuki scored on a power play.<\/p>\n
While Montreal\u2019s top line combined for 7 points in this game alone, the Sabres\u2019 top-line players have combined for 4 points the entire series. If the Sabres end up losing this series, it will be because they didn\u2019t get nearly enough from their best players. Late in the game, Ruff tried both Helenius and Ryan McLeod in Krebs\u2019 spot on the top line in an attempt to get Tuch and Thompson going. We\u2019ll see if the Sabres have a new top line in Game 6. \u2014 Fairburn<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BUFFALO, N.Y. \u2014 A Saturday night at the Bell Centre with a chance to clinch the series, you…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233848,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3297,48214,9,11,10,49,51,50,539],"class_list":["post-233847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-buffalo-sabres","tag-montreal-canadiens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-nhl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}