Niemi earns 3-0 shutout over Sabres

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In Buffalo Friday night, Antti Niemi made 35 saves for his first shutout win with the Montreal Canadiens, 3-0 over the Sabres.

“When you look at how his season started and coming to us and obviously playing so well, there’s no doubt he’s been a real positive for our hockey club and it’s been positive for him as well,” Canadiens head coach Claude Julien said. “Tonight’s shutout, he earned it.”

Niemi had played the NHL role of itinerate guest with waivers and claims early on in the season.

“I’m really happy for [Niemi],” the Canadiens’ Artturi Lehkonen said. “He has been unreal for us for a long time now; he’s been really playing great. Today was a really good example of how hard he competes and what kind of goalie he is. I’m really happy for him.”

Lehkonen had a goal in the victory and Paul Byron and Brendan Gallagher also struck for the Habs.

“It’s always good to win on the road,” Julien said. “And we know the circumstances. There’s two teams here playing each other that are out of the playoffs. A lot of it is for honor. A lot of it is for guys showing their professionalism and trying to keep jobs and fighting for jobs and all that stuff.”

The Sabres’ offense once again deserted them as they dropped their third straight and fell to 23-39-12.

The Habs improved to 27-36-12.

“I was lucky I had the puck at the end of the game and I asked him if he wanted it,” Karl Alzner said of the Niemi shutout. “Some goalies like that and he told me [it was his first shutout since 2015] and I was like, it’s hard to believe as good of a goalie as he is for that to be the case. It’s nice to be a part of it and nice to be there for him to get it. It’s just good for this team to have a game where we can get pucks out of the net like that,”on Antti Niemi‘s first shutout with Montreal

[WATCH: All Canadiens vs. Sabres highlights]

Linus Ullmark made 21 saves in the loss.

“We definitely beat ourselves tonight,” the Sabres’ Ryan O’Reilly said. “They didn’t do anything special. We missed the chances, didn’t handle the puck as good as we wanted to tonight. I think all the guys felt the same, it’s almost embarrassing. We could’ve at least made a game of it.”