Montreal, Quebec (WGR 550) – The Buffalo Sabres found their game Tuesday in Game 4 at Montreal beating the Canadiens 3-2. The best of seven second round series is now tied at two.
Buffalo handed Montreal seven power plays taking undisciplined penalties, but the penalty kill was one of the key reasons the Sabres won.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen jumped back in goal and made 28 saves for the win. Mattias Samuelsson was strong all night long in every phase of the game giving Buffalo the top two stars, but it was Lindy Ruff who was the MVP of the day.
I didn’t think it would be fair to put a player that just turned 20 into a game in Montreal when he never had played a Stanley Cup Playoff Game and had only played nine regular season games, but boy was I wrong. Ruff knew the kid would be fine and Konsta Helenius played so well, Ruff had him out in key situations in the final five minutes of the game and the kid responded.
With Helenius as their center, both Jason Zucker and Jack Quinn had much better games.
Ruff said he had been telling Luukkonen all along that he would get another chance in net and he followed through. Luukkonen was the game’s first star and made two bell ringer saves on 51-goal scorer Cole Caufield on the power play. Luukkonen came flying across the crease to stop two locked and loaded one-timers from the left circle.
The old saying is your goaltender needs to be your best penalty killer. Luukkonen stopped 9-of-10 power play shots.
Samuelsson scored a big goal on a great read to give the Sabres a 1-0 lead, but I think it was the other things he did that earned him the second star. Samuelsson played 7:13 of his team leading 23:47 on the penalty kill and did an amazing job. He blocked six shots and had six hits along the way. Conor Timmins played 7:42 of his 21:38 on the kill and he blocked five shots. Rasmus Dahlin only played 19:29 partly because he took two silly penalties.
You talk about doing the little things to win a hockey game, Buffalo blocked 27 shots while Montreal only had six.
The third good move by Ruff was to insert Luke Schenn into the lineup for Logan Stanley. Schenn did a nice job in limited action. Ruff wanted to draw on his vast NHL experience that would help calm the team down when it needed it. Schenn played 7:04, but 2:40 of it came shorthanded.
The Sabres won the special teams battle and I think the key part of the game came when they opened the third period killing 2:31 of a penalty. That kept the crowd out of the game and seemed to lift the Sabres. Even though the game was tied, you could see the Sabres were playing like they had for most of the season since Dec. 9. They were keeping shots to the outside allowing Luukkonen to see the puck and make saves.
This team got so good at protecting one goal leads and they did it again on Tuesday which helped them save their season. It was a must win game and they were up for the challenge.
The other thing in Buffalo’s favor is they went 2-for-4 on the power play. Yes, one was a lucky goal when Tage Thompson dumped the puck in. It hit a stanchion in the corner, bounced straight for the net. Jakub Dobes had no idea what had happened as the puck hit his leg and went in the day.
The other was the game-winning goal at 4:41 of the third period when birthday boy Zach Benson went to the front of the net. He gave the defenseman on him a gentle nudge separating them giving Josh Doan a lane to get him the puck as he now was alone. Benson put a nifty move on Dobes and roofed the game-winning goal. Benson has four goals and three assists for seven points in 10 playoff games. In his last 36 games of the regular season he had nine goals and 17 assists for 26 points.
Ruff commented after the game that it was nice to see his team back.
On the postgame show I asked Samuelsson if he’s enjoying the ups and downs of a seven game series. He said,
“It’s so much fun, I heard Bo (Byram) say it in the Boston series that you win Game 1 and you think you’re sweeping them and you lose Game 2, you think you’re losing in five, so just the emotional flows, it’s a lot of fun. Obviously I’ve never experienced it before, but I’m really getting a pretty good taste of it this year, so for me I just try to enjoy the ride and enjoy the flows of it for sure.”
The NHL announced that Saturday’s Game 6 in Montreal will be the nationally televised game on ABC at 8:00. For Canadian viewers it will be Hockey Night in Canada.
Game 5 will be Thursday in Buffalo. Faceoff is 7:05.
