Dobes makes 30 saves, Canadiens hold off Sabres

MONTREAL -- Jakub Dobes made 30 saves, and the Montreal Canadiens held on for a 4-2 win against the Buffalo Sabres at Bell Centre on Monday.

Juraj Slafkovsky, Lane Hutson, Jake Evans and Oliver Kapanen scored and Alex Newhook and Nick Suzuki each had two assists for Montreal (5-2-0), which has won five of its past six games.

“[Dobes] was great,” Evans said. “He looks huge out there and made some huge saves. We kind of let him out to dry in the second period and he kept us in it. I’m happy we got the win for him.”

Jiri Kulich and Tyson Kozak scored for Buffalo (2-4-0), which had won consecutive games. Alex Lyon made 27 saves in his sixth straight start.

“We had lots of good opportunities, it wasn’t about opportunities,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “You know you’re in a tight game and we didn’t defend the rush well on the second goal, and we got caught with a couple of tired people on the third one. I liked our answer right after that to come back and score. We had another couple of good looks, but we were in a tight game and we didn’t find a way to win.”

Kapanen put Montreal up 1-0 at 8:29 of the first period. He scored on a backhand between Lyon’s pads from the goalmouth after linemate Ivan Demidov was separated from the puck while driving to the net.

Kulich tied it 1-1 at 6:51 of the second period. After taking the puck off Canadiens forward Joe Veleno inside the blue line, Kulich drove to the net to take a return pass from Zach Benson and put a backhand under Dobes’ left pad.

“To me the difference was they outcompeted us in the first period,” Kulich said. “It was a wakeup call for us to jump to the second period like we did.”

Slafkovsky made it 2-1 for the Canadiens at 2:57 of the third period. He shot the puck into a wide-open net after Noah Dobson tucked the puck around Lyon into the crease as he cut behind the cage.

“It was a really nice play,” Slafkovsky said. “I was honestly just there standing and [Dobson] made a beautiful play.”

Hutson made it 3-1 at 11:38 on a wrist shot past Lyon’s glove from the slot on a pass from Newhook.

Kozak drew the Sabres within 3-2 at 12:30. He cut to the net from the right side to get behind Kapanen and swipe in Jack Quinn’s pass into the crease.

Evans scored into an empty net with 30 seconds remaining for the 4-2 final.

“Our first 25 minutes, we were really, really good,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. “And then we lost a little bit of momentum after they scored. … We get stubborn in the neutral zone when we don’t have a numerical advantage. We get away from what makes us successful, what made us successful in the first period in playing a deep game, whether we possess across the line or we chip pucks in.”

NOTES: Suzuki has 10 points (one goal, nine assists) during a six-game point streak. ... Buffalo defenseman Zach Metsa played 9:02 and was plus-1 in his NHL debut. … Sabres defenseman Jacob Bryson remains in concussion protocol and did not make the trip.