FINAL: BUF 3 MTL 2
SHOTS: BUF 38 MTL 38
POWERPLAY: BUF 0/3 MTL 0/1
HITS: BUF 29 MTL 7
BLOCKED SHOTS: BUF 8 MTL 20
GOALS:
MTL: Artturi Lehkonen (11) assisted by Paul Byron (15)
BUF: Brian Gionta (10) assisted by Evander Kane (6) and Zemgus Girgensons (7)
MTL: Phillip Danault (10) assisted by Jeff Petry (15) and Max Pacioretty (18)
BUF: Cody Franson (2) assisted by Ryan O’Reilly (19)
BUF: Zach Bogosian (1) assisted by Ryan O’Reilly (20) and Evander Kane (7)
RECAP:
After a big overtime win against the Detroit Red Wings last night, the Sabres were sitting 5 points out of the 2nd wildcard spot in the eastern conference. They had a chance to close that gap to 3 points against the Montreal Canadiens who are the best team in the Atlantic Division at the moment.
The Sabres got off to a very ugly start. They had many turnovers in the first few minutes of the game but they looked much better after that.
Robin Lehner made a terrific save on the Hab’s captain Max Pacioretty with his pad and he let out a rebound and Pacioretty had a wide open net but he shot it right at the post.
Early on in the 2nd period, Robin Lehner kicked out a rebound and the rookie Lehkonen put it home to put Montreal up 1-0. But only one minute later Evander Kane took a shot on Carey Price who then let a rebound right to Brian Gionta who shot it into the open net. Nice to see the former Montreal captain score tonight in Montreal. Gionta is having a very good season thus far. I don’t think Tim Murray will have a very hard time finding another team that would want to add Brian Gionta at the trade deadline.
Jeff Petry took a slap shot on Lehner and Phillip Danault was planted right in front of Lehner and the puck was redirected into the net to give the Habs a 2-1 lead. Dannault was a 1st round pick of the Chicago BlackHawks back in 2011 and was acquired by Montreal in a trade last year.
Alexei Emelin crushed Matt Moulson into the boards and Jack Eichel without any hesitation went right after him. Emelin was the player who crushed Eichel at the World Cup tournament in the Fall.
Cody Franson who has actually been playing pretty well the last couple of games scored his 2nd goal of the season off of a slap shot from the point to tie the game up at 2. That trade value is going up!
With just 6 seconds left in regulation Rasmus Ristolainen was absolutely robbed by Carey Price and the game would head to overtime.
Robin Lehner made an even better save in overtime. Lehner had a fantastic game tonight that was a great bounce back game after being pulled against the Leafs.
And Zach Bogosian FINALLY scored his 1st goal of the season in overtime and the Sabres won this game 3-2.
The Sabres have a chance to win 3 in a row against the Nashville Predators on Tuesday night.
