Cole Caufield ended a five-game goal drought with a decisive power-play tally, leading the Montreal Canadiens to a commanding 6-2 victory over the visiting Buffalo Sabres in Game 3 on Sunday night. The win gives Montreal a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal series.
Caufield, who scored 51 goals during the regular season, had not found the net since Game 5 of the first round against the Tampa Bay Lightning. He also added an assist in the contest.
Alex Newhook scored twice, while Juraj Slafkovsky netted his fourth postseason power-play goal. Zachary Bolduc and Kirby Dach also found the back of the net, and Lane Hutson recorded two assists. Goaltender Jakub Dobes made 26 saves for Montreal.
For Buffalo, Tage Thompson and Rasmus Dahlin each contributed a goal and an assist. Alex Lyon stopped 31 shots in the losing effort.
Thompson, who described his Game 2 performance as an “absolute disaster,” silenced the Bell Centre crowd just 53 seconds into the first period. After Dobes moved far out of his crease to try to corral a blast from Dahlin that went wide and bounced off the end boards, Thompson grabbed the puck on the hard rebound and slid it into the empty net.
Newhook evened the score at 15:31 of the first period when his shot deflected off Buffalo defenseman Conor Timmins and into the net. Newhook also scored the series-clinching goal in Game 7 against Tampa Bay in the previous round.
Early in the second period, Caufield missed a tap-in on a power play but quickly redeemed himself at 6:05. Hutson carried the puck through the left circle during a man advantage and set up Caufield for a one-timer to make it 2-1.
Montreal’s fourth line extended the lead to 3-1 at 10:43 when Joe Veleno fed a trailing Bolduc, who beat Lyon with a shot from the slot.
After Buffalo’s Beck Malenstyn was penalized for a hard interference collision with Dobes, Hutson threaded a pass through the slot that deflected off Slafkovsky for another power-play goal at 12:17, pushing the lead to 4-1.
Dahlin answered with a power-play goal of his own at 14:30, just 16 seconds after Dach was called for holding Josh Doan’s stick.
The Sabres mounted a strong push on a power play and carried that momentum into the third period, but a 2-on-1 rush for Montreal resulted in Dach firing home his fourth goal of the playoffs at 8:46 to restore a 5-2 advantage.
Newhook put the game away with his fifth postseason marker at 15:14, awarded a goal after being fouled on a breakaway toward an empty net.
