‘Belief never wavered’ | Sabres bounce back admirably to tie series in Montreal

MONTREAL – Game 4 on Tuesday at Bell Centre had just about everything. A video review of a video review. Penalties by the dozen. A goal from center ice. A rock-solid return to the net after three weeks on the bench. A heroic, shot-blocking flurry late. The list goes on.

Through it all, after three nail-biting hours, the Buffalo Sabres beat the Montreal Canadiens, 3-2, to tie their second-round series at two games apiece. Zach Benson’s power-play goal early in the third period was the game winner, and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 28 saves in his first action since Game 2 of the first round.

The Sabres had their skeptics in the wake of four-goal losses in Games 2 and 3, which set up a near-must-win situation in the league’s most hostile environment. But those external doubters weren’t the ones hopping over the boards and grinding out a victory.

“Our belief never wavered,” Benson said.

“I don’t think there’s ever been wavering confidence in our group all season,” echoed Tage Thompson. “From Day 1, we had people doubting us and counting us out. It’s all these guys inside this room, our staff, that’s the only opinions that matter in here, and we all believe in each other.”

Thompson felt the Sabres let their emotions get away from them in Game 3, and they were put to the test right away in Game 4. Mattias Samuelsson opened the scoring in a dominant start for Buffalo, and minutes later, a video review revealed that Jack Quinn had doubled the lead, his close-range shot taking goalie Jakub Dobes’ glove across the goal line.

But the Canadiens challenged the already-reviewed play for goalie interference and got it overturned. The 10-minute delay took a Sabres goal off the board, killed their early momentum and led to, in short order, a tying goal from Montreal’s Alex Newhook. Cole Caufield added a power-play goal in the last minute of the period, so the Sabres faced a 2-1 deficit (undeserved, they felt) at the first intermission.

“We learned our lesson,” said Thompson, “and in a similar situation coming into the first intermission, did a way better job regrouping, just calming ourselves back down. I thought we played a great game.”

“There was a lot of elements that went the other way,” added coach Lindy Ruff. “The review where we get the goal, the review where they take it away. Which I totally disagree with, just for the fact that Dobes always is swinging his stick. He initiated the contact with (Konsta) Helenius with his stick coming across the crease.”

The hockey gods chimed in during the second period, this time in Buffalo’s favor. Early in a four-minute power play, Thompson’s dump-in from the neutral zone ricocheted off the corner boards, straight to the net and inside the post to beat Dobes. The big forward has scored 220 NHL goals and can’t remember another like that, but it counted all the same.

Buffalo killed off its own double-minor penalty between the second and third periods, part of a 6-for-7 night shorthanded, then Peyton Krebs drew a call. The new-look first unit cashed in again as Benson found space in the slot, kicked a pass to his backhand and flipped it past Dobes’ glove for a 3-2 Sabres lead.

The Sabres’ man advantage is now 5-for-16 (31%) this series, compared to 1-for-24 (4%) in Round 1.

“We’ve talked about our power play being good in key moments. That’s what we did: We went out there, we executed,” said Benson, who turned 21 on Tuesday and is up to four goals these playoffs. “Heck of a slip pass by [Josh Doan], and my job was pretty easy from there, just putting it in the net.”

Joked Thompson: “I don’t know if being 21 makes him an adult, but it’s exciting. … No better way to celebrate Benny’s birthday than getting the game winner.”

From there, the Sabres put on one of their clinics in closing out a one-goal game, blocking 12 shots after the Benson goal (and 27 in the game, by far their most these playoffs). Samuelsson led the way with six blocks, plus six hits and the goal in a team-high 23:47 of ice time. “He was a beast,” Ruff said.

“Those are things that don’t look pretty on TV or to fans watching,” Thompson said of the blocks, “but that stuff on the bench gets us just as jacked as scoring a goal.”

And Luukkonen was outstanding when shots did get through, making 12 third-period saves to survive a strong Canadiens push. He stopped the last 23 shots he faced after Caufield’s goal and made seven high-danger saves (Natural Stat Trick). During a second-period penalty kill, with Montreal still ahead 2-1, Luukkonen pushed across to rob a pair of Caufield one-timers – game-saving plays, most likely.

“He’s a dog,” Benson said. “We had all the confidence in the world in him – all of our goalies. Upie made so many big saves tonight that we really needed in key moments. All the credit goes to him. He was the biggest reason why we walked out of this building with a win.”

A trademark of this Sabres season has been the goaltending by committee; when a guy gets hot, the net is his. Alex Lyon made seven straight starts to get the team this far, and after he faltered a bit in Games 2 and 3, Luukkonen predictably stepped up in the clutch.

“He has worked extremely hard knowing that his chance was going to come,” Ruff said.

“… It’s all about the way this group has been. It’s more about winning, and it doesn’t matter who’s getting the wins. Let’s just win hockey games.”

Postgame sound

Up next

Game 5 is back at KeyBank Center on Thursday at 7 p.m. on TNT, truTV and HBO Max.

As always, Brian Duff and Marty Biron’s pregame and postgame shows will be available on MSG, the Sabres’ social channels and the Buffalo Sabres App.

• Round 2 watch party schedule and info