Sabres 'embrace' opportunity to return home for Game 7 after keeping season alive

MONTREAL -- The Bell Centre crowd was roaring, fired up on a Saturday night cocktail of Larry Robinson as torch bearer, three-goals-on-four-shots ending the night early for Buffalo Sabres goalie Alex Lyon, and an Eastern Conference Final spot that seemed oh-so-close.

The Sabres pulled Lyon at 10:14 of the first period, sending Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen on in relief, and it felt like a capitulation. It felt like a white flag to the red-clad fans out for blood.

But the Sabres were not interested in an end to their season. Not then. Not yet.

They would score eight times, seven unanswered goals, a near-perfect reversal of the way they lost Game 5 at home to the Montreal Canadiens, who had put them on the brink of elimination.

Now, they are alive, after an 8-3 win. They will return home, to Buffalo, to KeyBank Center, with Game 7 on Monday (7:30 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN, TVAS, CBC), with a chance to do something they haven’t in nearly two decades: Make it back to the conference final, which they last did in 2007.

It was at that moment, as Lyon skated off, as Luukkonen skated on, that something awoke in the Sabres, that they saw the end of their season written in stark relief. They had already felt good about the way they were playing in the first, despite goals by Arber Xhekaj (1:40), Ivan Demidov (8:12, power play) and Jake Evans (10:14, short-handed).

The ice tilted. They controlled the puck, they controlled the play, they found the offensive stride that had gotten them this far in the first place, allowing them to win a stacked Atlantic Division.

They let go, of the stress, of the score, of the past.

They turned to what coach Lindy Ruff had said earlier that day, as he exhorted them to play freely, to play the way he knew they could. He had seen, in the tape, guys pointing at each other in games prior, telling each other where to go, an indication for him of indecision on what they were doing.

“So we just used this expression this morning that was JFG — and you can figure out what that is,” Ruff said.

Just (freaking) go.

They let failures melt away, whether those were personal or team-wide. They focused, solely, on what was ahead of them.

“Very proud of our guys,” Ruff said. “We talked this morning about how everybody needs to play their best game. The regular season doesn’t mean anything. The Boston series doesn’t mean anything. And the five games to this point really don’t mean anything. Our defining moment is this game tonight and we have to play our best game.”

They responded. Especially their best players, the ones who had struggled mightily in the first five games of the series.

Rasmus Dahlin had five points (one goal, four assists), tying the Sabres record for points in a playoff game, matching Derek Roy (Game 1 of the 2006 Conference Semifinals) and John Tucker (Game 4 of the 1988 Division Semifinals), with his goal coming 32 seconds into the game. Tage Thompson had four points (one goal, three assists).

“Five points is pretty good,” Luukkonen said of Dahlin. “It’s an elimination game for us, and our captain steps up. That’s how you lead a team. I think that’s been the whole year how well he has played. It’s not always if you’re the loudest on the bench or in the locker room. You take games over when you need to, and I think he very much showed it today.”

But it all could have gone sideways, when the Sabres were down two goals, when they were trailing amidst the bedlam at Bell Centre. Even though they liked their play in the first period. Even though they felt comfortable with where their game was and where it was going.

“We loved our first period,” Thompson said. “The score wasn’t representative of it but we were playing the game the right way. I thought we were putting pucks deep, forechecking, taking away their time and space and I thought our D-zone was good, we were getting looks. We know that if we played that way for the rest of the game that we were going to find ourselves back in it, if not in the lead.”

In Game 5, the big decision came when, after Jakub Dobes had allowed three goals on four shots, Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis left him in the game. In Game 6, the big decision came when, after Lyon had done the same, Ruff took him out.

Luukkonen was ready, even after the disappointment of Game 5, in which he had allowed five goals on 23 shots, even after he had been pulled and lost his starting spot for Game 6.

“When you get put in, it doesn’t really matter how many shots you see, you just try to find a way to get comfortable in the net, be ready for the next shot,” Luukkonen said. “I feel like, as a goalie, you kind of have to think that you’re almost playing with house money at that point.”

In some ways they all were. They had nothing to lose, everything to gain.

And now, it is Game 7.

“It’s another game that we get to embrace,” Thompson said. “I think if you would have asked every guy in here in September if they would have taken being in Game 7 in round two, we all would have signed up for that.

“So we’re in a great spot. Like I said, now it’s just one game. That’s all that matters.”