After a few games over Christmas and New Years’ that I wasn’t able to blog, I’m back again tonight. The Sabres went into Montreal tonight and dominated the Habs on both ends of the ice, winning 6-1 in a really well played game.
Pretty decent scoreless first period for the Sabres, especially Devon Levi who was fantastic in goal in his first game in his hometown of Montreal. He made some great saves and kept it scoreless. The Sabres generated some decent shots but not quality enough of chances to beat Jake Allen, who didn’t look too great in the Habs goal, yet we couldn’t score on him.
Montreal got on the board first 2:06 into the second period on a nicely placed shot by Joel Armia (former Sabres draft pick) beating Levi right under the glove. After review though, the goal was taken off the board with a successful challenge from Granato for goaltender interference. A few minutes later, on the power play, the Sabres got the real 1-0 lead as Casey Mittelstadt tapped in a cross crease pass from Skinner 5:33 into the second. Skinner made it 2-0 on the next power play a few minutes later on a nicely placed shot top shelf 6:59 into the period for his second point of the night and the second power play goal for Buffalo. Armia got his goal back later, scoring shorthanded after he took the puck away from Dahlin and put the Habs on the board, making it 2-1 with 6:41 left in the second. Another pretty good period by the Sabres and a fun one to watch for sure.
The Sabres got the two goal lead back with 13:14 left in regulation. On the zone entry Jack Quinn brought the puck in and put the puck perfectly in the top left corner of the net to make it a 3-1 game. Less than two minutes later, Jeff Skinner brought the puck with plenty of time right in front and Tage Thompson tapped it in for the Sabres’ fourth goal with 11:25 left. Rasmus Dahlin made it a 5-1 game on the empty net. Tage ended the game by hitting the over with 1:28 to go, extending the lead to 6-1.
FINAL: Sabres 6, Canadiens 1
HUGE win. Buffalo dominated both ends of the ice, playing great hockey on both ends of the ice. We outshot the Habs 38-33 and out chanced them 27-20. Devon Levi, in his first game in his hometown of Montreal, made 32 saves on the 33 shots he faced, making some huge saves early in the game to keep it scoreless. The special teams were good, scoring twice on the power play, and although we gave up a goal shorthanded, the Canadiens didn’t score on any of their three chances.
Big win. Let’s build on it.
Go Sabres!
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