Tage Thompson had a goal and an assist, and Josh Doan had two assists for Buffalo, the No. 1 seed in the Atlantic Division, which tied the best-of-7 series 2-2 after losing the previous two games.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 28 saves for the win in his first start since April 21, when he was replaced by Alex Lyon 16 seconds into the third period of a 4-2 loss to the Boston Bruins in Game 2 of the first round.
Alex Newhook scored his fifth goal in three games, and Cole Caufield scored for a second straight game for Montreal, the No. 3 seed in the Atlantic. Jakub Dobes made 19 saves.
Game 5 is at Buffalo on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; HBO MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS, CBC).
Benson put the Sabres up 3-2 with Buffalo’s second straight power-play goal. He took a centering pass from Doan in the goalmouth and scored on a backhand.
Buffalo went 2-for-4 with the man-advantage. Montreal was 1-for-7 on the power play.
Mattias Samuelsson gave Buffalo a 1-0 lead at 6:32 of the first period. While Benson drove to the net to create traffic in front of the net, Samuelsson trailed from the right to beat Dobes with a one-timer off Josh Norris’ cross-ice pass.
The Sabres appeared to have taken a two-goal lead at 8:02 when a video review determined that the puck had crossed the goal line when Dobes caught Jack Quinn’s shot. But Montreal successfully challenged that Buffalo rookie Konsta Helenius, who was making his Stanley Cup Playoff debut, interfered with Dobes on the play.
Newhook then tied it 1-1 at 10:09 with his sixth goal of the playoffs. He drove to the slot to take Jake Evans’ backhand pass from behind the goal line and snap a shot past Luukkonen.
Caufield put Montreal up 2-1 with a power-play goal at 19:47. He took a pass from Juraj Slakovsky to the left of the net and skated in along the goal line before slipping a shot under Luukkonen’s left pad.
Thompson tied it 2-2 with a power-play goal at 7:00 of the second period. His dump-in took an odd bounce off a stanchion along the left boards and went in off Dobes’ leg.
