Stanley Cup Playoffs Day 28: Sabres run away from Habs, force Game 7
The Stanley Cup Playoffs are back, which means that for the next two months, we’ll get non-stop action as we witness 16 teams get whittled down to the one that will be crowned as the 2026 Stanley Cup champions. Here at Daily Faceoff, we’ll be keeping you in the loop on everything that happens in the playoffs, every day until the Stanley Cup is hoisted in June.
Saturday’s only action was an enormous Game 6 between Atlantic Division rivals in Montreal.
Goalie change sparks Buffalo comeback
Despite goaltender Alex Lyon giving up three goals on four shots in the first period, the Buffalo Sabres stormed back against the Montreal Canadiens to win Saturday’s Game 6 by a score of 8-3 and force a Game 7 in Buffalo on Monday.
It was a well-earned victory for Buffalo, who bounced back from an ugly Game 5 loss by outshooting Montreal 36-22 and generating 68.19% of the expected goals according to Natural Stat Trick. They also got monster performances from their best players, as defenseman Rasmus Dahlin had five points and forward Tage Thompson had four points.
Like they’ve seemingly done all series, the Sabres started fast with a filthy goal from Dahlin just over 30 seconds into the game.
However, the Canadiens kept up their trend of roaring back, evening the score with a snap shot by defenseman Arber Xhekaj off an offensive zone faceoff.
Midway through the first period, the Canadiens rode their special teams to grab a 3-1 lead, getting a power play goal from Ivan Demidov and a short-handed goal from Jake Evan just over two minutes removed from each other, chasing Lyon from the game in favor of Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.
With about six minutes left in the first, Buffalo scored their first of seven unanswered goals, as they took advantage of double minor high-sticking penalty against defenseman Mike Matheson with a Jason Zucker power play tally.
A minute into the second, Zach Benson tied the game back up 3-3, sweeping a loose puck past Canadiens goaltender Jakub Dobes after a Bowen Byram point shot.
Midway through the second, forward Jack Quinn gave the Sabres a 4-3 lead with a one-timer on the power play.
Just over two minutes later, forward Konsta Helenius scored after Zucker won a battle at the blue line against Montreal defenseman Kaiden Guhle and fed him on a 2-on-1.
Midway through the third period, Buffalo extended their lead to three and chased Dobes out of Montreal’s net when Quinn scored his second goal of the game with a sharp-angle one-timer on the power play. An empty-netter from Thompson and a power play goal from defenseman Zach Metsa wrapped up the scoring for the Sabres.
Luukonnen allowed no goals on 17 shots in relief of Lyon, giving himself a good chance of getting the nod as Buffalo’s starter for Game 7. Dobes will presumably still be Montreal’s starter given how well he had played prior to Saturday’s loss.