In Buffalo, the Montreal Canadiens spotted the Sabres a 1-0 lead in the first period and then reeled off three unanswered goals in a 3-1 win on Thursday night.
Brendan Gallagher potted the game-winner in his return to the ice.
Thomas Tatar had a goal and two points in win – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
“First period for us was pretty sloppy,” Gallagher said. “We just kind of needed to make a little bit of adjustment. We started putting pucks behind them. Their gaps were really tight early on, we were turning pucks over, there wasn’t much flow, but I think second period on I felt more comfortable and I think our team started to play more our game and we were pretty happy with the way it went after that.”
Carey Price made 20 saves in the win.
“We played in front of their defensemen for the first half of the first period,” Canadiens head coach Claude Julien said. “They were playing tight so there were a lot of turnovers in the neutral zone. Once we started putting the puck behind them we started moving our feet, played with more speed and the chances started to come.”
Jack Eichel posted his 30th of the season in the fist period.
“We just came out flat in the beginning of the second period. It took a while for us to grind ourselves back into the game,” Sabres head coach Ralph Krueger said. “I thought there was a reaction in the making, but we just did not get to Price in the way we needed to win this game tonight and it’s extremely disappointing where we’re standing right now. But the start was good. … and it’s always a combination of the opposition doing things better and us not being able to sustain that, and we need to figure out what happened.”
Tomas Tatar had a goal and two points on the night.
“I said that this morning, about the fact that if we want to start winning some hockey games from hereon in, we’ve got to tighten up defensively,” Julien said. “They’re going to have be 2-1, 3-2, whatever, 4-3 games. We can’t get into those run-and-gun type of games and we’ve got to get better defensively. I thought our team after that 10-minute mark, and even before that, I don’t think they had a ton but I thought we did a good job of minimizing their scoring chances. Hopefully it’s something they can build on and we can move forward with.”
Ilya Kovalchuk picked up his eighth of the season.
“Not desperate enough, not nearly desperate enough, and that’s kind of been the message in the room, especially after today is guys got to understand the position we’re in, and we do like to keep the picture small, but the last two games — we’ve been good on home ice — but we’ve let ourselves down here and nobody’s going to feel bad for us,” the Sabres’ Jake McCabe said.
[WATCH: All Canadiens vs. Sabres highlights]
Carter Hutton made 27 saves in another loss featuring a lack of offensive support.
“I think everyone overthinks it but me, so I just keep playing,” Hutton said. “I put the work in and I’ve been playing for a while and I have a lot of experiences to draw on, so I just keep with it.
“It’s obviously frustrating, right? I’m not going to sit here and be happy with a loss. At some point we got to just stick to it here. We got to realize other teams are more desperate than we are, and we have to find a way to answer the bell here, especially at home.”
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