Caufield got a breakaway after a hard rebound off the boards of a Josh Norris shot for Buffalo. The forward chased down the puck at the blue line and skated in alone to score over Buffalo goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen’s blocker-side shoulder.
Zachary Bolduc and Alexandre Texier scored, and Jacob Fowler made 23 saves for Montreal (4-3-1), which has won three of four. Juraj Slafkovsky and Alexandre Carrier each had two assists.
Josh Norris, Jack Quinn and Tage Thompson scored and Luukkonen made 30 saves for Buffalo (4-3-2), which was 2-0-1 in its previous three games, including a 4-3 shootout loss here Tuesday.
Norris put Buffalo up 1-0 at 8:21 of the first period. He put in his own rebound after carrying the puck over the blue line and passing to his right before heading to the front of the net to deflect Konsta Helenius’ shot.
Bolduc tied it 1-1 with a power-play goal at 11:45 when he tipped Nick Suzuki’s wrist shot past Luukkonen stick side from the left side of the goalmouth.
Caufield gave the Canadiens a 2-1 lead at 14:01. Slafkovsky got his second straight assist with a pass from behind the net to set up Caufield, who snapped a quick shot past Luukkonen.
Texier made it 3-1 at 7:39 of the second period when he put away his own rebound after he tipped Kaiden Guhle’s point shot. Carrier had the secondary assist for a second straight goal.
Quinn scored the Sabres’ first short-handed goal of the season at 9:52 to cut the lead to 3-2.
Thompson tied it 3-3 at 10:12 of the third period. He scored on a backdoor pass from Josh Doan, who spun around on the outside of the right circle to set up Thompson for a shot behind Fowler stick side.
Suzuki had the only shot on goal during a two-man advantage for 45 seconds in the second period when Zach Benson was called for elbowing Caufield at 15:35 with Dennis Gilbert already in the penalty box.
