Sabres extend streak to eight with OT win against Canadiens

BUFFALO -- Jeff Skinner scored on the power play with 1:54 left in overtime to give the Buffalo Sabres their eighth straight win, 3-2 against the Montreal Canadiens at KeyBank Center on Friday.

Skinner tied it 2-2 with 2:26 remaining in the third period when he backhanded a rebound from the left circle past Antti Niemi.
"He was a dog-on-a-bone mentality," Sabres coach Phil Housley said. "Any loose puck or retrieval he was going to get on it and made some big saves the one time he dove to keep it in to keep position. That's what Jeff Skinner does, he can track down pucks for us."
WATCH: [All Canadiens vs. Sabres highlights]
Skinner, who has 16 goals in his past 16 games, tied Boston Bruins forward David Pastrnak for the NHL lead with his 17th goal. Pastrnak played later Saturday.

Brendan Gallagher and Andrew Shaw scored for the Canadiens (11-7-5), who have lost three in a row. Niemi made 37 saves.
"They're a team in our division and those are important points," Montreal coach Claude Julien said. "We had control of the game there until the last two and a half minutes when they tied the game up. I thought we played a good, sound game overall. We were much better defensively, but discipline at the end, we take a penalty ... and failing to clear the puck at times, and it ended up in the back of our net."
Casey Mittelstadt scored for Buffalo (15-6-2), and Carter Hutton made 31 saves.
"Whatever the score is, I think we keep to it," Hutton said. "Obviously, their power play comes through, they get a great goal. We stick with it there and we get a big goal late."
Mittelstadt made it 1-0 at 12:39 of the first period. Conor Sheary's deflection of Jake McCabe's shot-pass hit the right post and Mittelstadt tapped the puck into the open side of the net.

Denied a goal a few minutes earlier when it was ruled he kicked the puck in the net, Gallagher tied it 1-1 at 18:12 of the second period when his shot from the right circle beat Hutton on the far side.
Montreal took a 2-1 lead at 8:18 of the third period, on a power-play goal by Shaw, who, screening Hutton, tipped David Schlemko's point shot.
"Obviously we didn't get the result we wanted to but I think we got better as the game went on, and again lose some puck battles in front of the net to just put us behind the eight ball," Shaw said.

They said it

"[Antti] was solid in net and our [defense] was playing well too. We got a great, solid 60 minutes as a team defensively, so that's the positive point from tonight." -- Canadiens forward Phillip Danault
"We're enjoying it for sure. We don't want to lose. Who wants to lose? You want to win every game you go out and try to play. We get a tough test again tomorrow against [the Detroit Red Wings], a team that's playing really well. We'll definitely enjoy this come-from-behind win and savor it a little bit." -- Sabres captain Jack Eichel

Need to know

The Sabres are 9-1-0 in their past 10 games, which is their best 10-game stretch since starting the 2006-07 season 10-0-0. ... The Sabres have defeated the Canadiens by one goal in each of their three games. ... Canadiens forward Max Domi had an 11-game point streak end (six goals, 10 assists).

What's next

Canadiens: Host the Boston Bruins on Saturday (7 p.m. ET, SN, TVAS, NESN, NHL.TV)
Sabres: At the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday (7 p.m. ET, FS-D, MSG-B, NHL.TV)