In Buffalo, the Sabres came out with a two-goal first period and buried the Montreal Canadiens, 5-1, on Thursday night.
Kyle Okposo and Zemgus Girgensons staked the Sabres to the 2-0 lead.
Definitely (special), and especially having the fans back,” Girgensons said. “I know I didn’t play without fans, but the excitement. I was very excited. I usually nap, so it was hard to nap today. You know, you kept thinking about the game. I was kind of like a kid again going to hockey practice.”
Craig Anderson made 30 saves to get the win for Buffalo.
“Great leadership qualities. A guy that does the work in daily,” Anderson said of Okposo. “Says the right things, does the right things. And you know, it shows tonight that he’s got some offensive skill and offensive ability to chip in. … A guy like that that we can all look to, that does it right on a daily basis is something that I think is monumental.”
Chris Wideman scored the Habs only goal in the middle frame,
“In the first period, we were bad in every aspect, including the way we were competing,” Canadiens head coach Dominique Ducharme said. “We didn’t play to our team identity, that’s for sure. We had a better start to the second, and then the penalties we took hurt us.”
The Sabres went 3-for-6 on the power play.
“They deserved to win, they got the result that they deserved,” Montreal’s Brendan Gallagher said. “We didn’t put in the work to be the team celebrating right now. So we respond. It’s obviously early in the season, but these points at the beginning of the year are critical. You don’t want to put yourself in a hole, so obviously to start 0-and-2, there’s a lot of urgency on the next one.”
After Montreal cut the score to 2-1, Anders Bjork and Victor Olofsson struck for goals to push the lead to 4-1 by the end of the second period.
Tage Thompson popped in a power play strike in the early minutes of the third period to close out the scoring for the Sabres.
“You could see the emotion on the bench, on the ice, in the crowd, everywhere tonight,” Okposo said. “It was a full-building effort tonight from us and we definitely drew off the fans, drew some energy from them, and it was great to have them back in the building. It makes a huge difference. But yeah, I thought we rolled tonight. I thought special teams were really good. A little bit out of rhythm of the game there in the second, or first and second, but 5-on-5 I thought we played a full team game.”
Montreal was scoreless in four power play chances.
The Canadiens have started the season with two straight losses.
Sam Montembeault made 31 saves in the loss.
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