Canadiens feel weight of ‘unlucky bounce’ in Game 4 loss of Eastern 2nd Round

MONTREAL -- It was a bizarre bounce that changed the game.

And, in the end, maybe the series.

Should the Montreal Canadiens end up losing this best-of-7 Eastern Conference Second Round matchup against the Buffalo Sabres, they could very well circle a two-second window in time midway through the second period of their 3-2 defeat in Game 4 Tuesday as a turning point where all the momentum they’d accrued was siphoned by one crazy, kooky ricochet.

Home-ice advantage?

Not on this night.

Not even with the most raucous of atmospheres at the electric Bell Centre.

Not when an unexpected deflection off the stanchion door of the Zamboni entrance in the Canadiens home rink gave the visitors new life while sucking some out of the hosts.

“I thought we played well enough to win,” Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki said. “Then came an unlucky bounce in the second and …”

He didn't finish the sentence. He didn’t have to.

It was obvious what the impact of the play was.

Here’s its ramifications and how it all played out.

The Canadiens, already up 2-1 in the series, were leading 2-1 in Game 4. To that point, they were on a run in which they’d outscored Buffalo 14-4 since the second period of Game 1. They’d eclipsed an early 1-0 lead and had done a good job of killing off half a high-sticking double minor to defenseman Alexandre Carrier.

Win this one, and they’d be one victory away from advancing to the Eastern Conference Final and a date with the Carolina Hurricanes.

Not so fast.

As Sabres forward Tage Thompson hit the large Canadiens logo at center ice, he ripped a dump-in into the corner of the rink.

One moment you could hear the clank of the puck hitting the glass.

The next, you could hear the collective groan of the 20,962 in attendance.

Because the puck had hit a stanchion, careened on a weird angle off the top of the pad of Canadiens goalie Jakub Dobes and nestled into the back of the net.

“I heard the crowd and it was just like ‘Here we go again,’ Canadiens defenseman Kaiden Guhle said, referring to the fact that the team had been hexed by some bad bounces off that same door before.

But never like this. Never on such a grand stage.

The goal allowed the Sabres to tie the game 2-2 and gave them an adrenaline lift the rest of the way. The comeback then was capped off by forward Zach Benson, who scored the winner, another power-play goal, at 4:41 of the third.

But it was the bounce that continued to be the trending topic of conversation.

At the time, it seemed Dobes was the only one who’d immediately known it had gone in and slumped on his knees. Even the officials needed a couple of moments to digest what had occurred.

“Oh … it’s in,” a shocked Chris Cuthbert said upon realizing what had happened while doing the play-by-play on Sportsnet’s national broadcast here in Canada.

“Unbelievable,” said Craig Simpson, his color analyst. “Unreal.”

Sean McDonough, who was calling the game on the ESPN broadcast in the U.S., had a similar reaction.

“It’s in!” color analyst Ray Ferraro suddenly said.

“Is it in? It’s in!” McDonough confirmed.

Yes it was.

Had he ever scored a goal like that at any level, Thompson was asked afterward.

“No, not like that, but I’ll take it,” he replied.

“We didn’t get in the first couple break-ins on the power play and you do that sometimes,” he continued. “You want to just keep it simple, rim it, and try to get on the forecheck. I rimmed it and obviously saw it hit the glass and saw, kind of just scanned around looking for it and then a few guys put their hands up.

“So it’s a nice feeling when you see that.”

Not for the Canadiens.

“It (stinks),” forward Cole Caufield said. “Honestly, I thought we played a pretty good game. Obviously, there’s some things we can get better at, but seeing a fluke going in like that, it’s obviously not the bounce you want.”

Make no mistake. There were still 33 minutes remaining in the game after Thompson’s goal at 7:00 of the second knotted the game at 2-2, plenty of time for Montreal to get its mojo back.

But thanks in part to the 28-save performance of Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, who was starting for the first time since Game 2 of the Sabres’ first round series against the Boston Bruins, it was Buffalo that went on to win the game and took back home-ice advantage in the series.

Ironically, in that same game against Boston, Luukkonen also allowed a long-distance goal from the neutral zone, that one a backhand by the Bruins’ Morgan Geekie that helped them go on to win 4-2. Alex Lyon started the next seven games for Buffalo before coach Lindy Ruff turned back to Luukkonen on Tuesday.

This time he, himself, was the benefactor of his own team scoring a weird goal from distance.

Let’s see how far, if at all, it propels the Sabres and hinders the Canadiens moving forward.

NHL.com senior writer Amalie Benjamin contributed to this report