MONTREAL — When Montreal Canadiens forward Nick Suzuki scored off a rebound with 8:40 left in the second period, the home crowd at the Bell Centre was in a frenzy. After the Buffalo Sabres had built a 3-0 lead to start the game, Suzuki’s goal cut the lead to 3-2. Sabres coach Lindy Ruff has played and coached in enough games in Montreal to know the effect the crowd can have on the game. He had that in mind when he called a timeout.
“I’ve seen it in this building where they score one, they score another one within 30 seconds,” Ruff said. “So really, part of that was buying time and trying to get the crowd out of it.”
Ruff didn’t have much tactical advice during that timeout. His message was a lot simpler.
“I just told them we’re real good team,” Ruff said. “We’re a real good team and we can play a lot better than we’re playing, support each other, get back and make sure that our defensemen breaking out have their outs and just get back to playing our game. I said, that’s their push; I said, now let’s answer it.”
The Sabres did manage to answer it. After allowing seven high-danger chances in the second period, the Sabres only allowed the Canadiens to get one high-danger chance in the third. As they have done often during this stretch of winning, the Sabres allowed a team to get back into the game but locked things down for a win anyway. And for the fourth time this season, Peyton Krebs got the empty-net goal and put the finishing touch on the Sabres’ 4-2 win.
“There’s been some games where we’re just fighting to survive,” said defenseman Bowen Byram, who had more than 27 minutes of ice time. “Sometimes that’s how you’ve got to win. Not all of them are going to be perfect. I’m proud of our group for finding ways to win. Obviously you’d like to stay in control of the game a little more than we have been lately. But we’ll take what we can get and keep learning from all of these situations.”
Buffalo has now beaten Montreal twice this month and will play the Canadiens again in nine days. The Sabres are two points behind the Canadiens for third place in the Atlantic Division and have a game in hand. With this win, the Sabres are 17-3-1 in their last 21 games and have 61 points at the 50-game mark, good for a 100-point pace for the season.
That’s why the games have started to feel bigger and bigger as the season goes on. And the Sabres are proving themselves capable of meeting the moment.
“It’s a lot of fun when you’re playing for something bigger than yourself,” said Byram, who won a Stanley Cup in Colorado. “It’s really enjoyable. I think your team comes together a lot more when you’re fighting for points every night, trying to get into the playoffs, trying to stay in a playoff spot. These games against Montreal and the one next week, whenever that one is, it’s a huge game. They’re four-point games in our division and we’re chasing them down.”
The Sabres wouldn’t have escaped with two points in this game if not for a fast start. Jason Zucker scored 44 seconds into the game on a perfect feed from Jack Quinn. Then later in the first period, Beck Malenstyn scored a short-handed goal on a sensational individual effort. Zach Benson added a hard-earned goal at the net-front early in the second period to give the Sabres the three-goal cushion they desperately needed.
The rest of the game wasn’t perfect, and it certainly wasn’t pretty. But the Sabres keep finding ways to win. They’re now 10-2 in their last 12 road games. And along the way, they’re getting a taste of what meaningful games feel like.
“Coming into a sold-out Bell Centre is as close to a playoff game as you’re going to get in the regular season,” Malenstyn said. “And this team’s been playing very well. Their fans are incredible. You can feel the energy when you come up to start the game. When they get a little bit of momentum it’s a hostile environment. It’s a great lesson for us how we eventually weathered that storm in that game, managed the momentum.”
Despite winning 17 of their last 21 games, the Sabres still don’t have a lot of breathing room in the standings. Players are well aware of that fact. They see the standings and know that every game against an Eastern Conference opponent is going to have an extra feeling of desperation on both sides.
“Hopefully we can stay on that path and we can find ourselves in a playoff spot when all the dust settles,” Malenstyn said. “I think every team that gets in coming out of the East is going to be extremely well-prepared just on how hard it was to get to that point.”
Quick hits
1. The Sabres got a strong game from Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. He stopped 32 of 34 shots and made six saves on high-danger chances. When the Canadiens were carrying play in the second period, Luukkonen helped keep the game under control for Buffalo. Luukkonen is now 7-2-1 in his last 10 starts.
“It’s fun to come into this building and take points away,” Luukkonen said.
2. Michael Kesselring was back in the lineup Thursday and logged just over 12 minutes of ice time. The Sabres needed him, too, because Jacob Bryson left the game with an upper-body injury. Ruff said Bryson will “miss some time,” so the Sabres’ defensive depth will be tested again. But Kesselring’s return is a welcome sight even if he’s still managing pain in his injured ankle.
“I mean, it’s just an injury — it’s tough with hockey,” Kesselring said. “It’s one, I take a hit and it goes back, I feel like, a week, it goes back 10 percent with how I’m feeling. So I just want to feel at least around 90 percent when I’m playing, so that’s kind of why I sat out and just rehabbed the last few days again.”
3. Bryson wasn’t the only Sabres player who got banged up. Benson took an elbow to the face late but stayed on the bench afterward. Then Rasmus Dahlin blocked a shot from Ivan Demidov with just over a minute left and was in quite a bit of pain, grabbing his left arm area on the bench. Those will be situations to monitor as Buffalo’s lineup has already been stressed by injuries.