By: Brayden Peters
MONTRÉAL, Q.C. - The Buffalo Sabres are the only team in the NHL to not win a game this month. That hasn't changed as the Sabres were crushed by the Montréal Canadiens 6-1, extending Buffalo's losing streak to 11 games. A slow start in the first period along with a multitude of penalties hurt Buffalo's chances of staying in the game.
The Sabres only recorded three shots on goal in the first period, all of which came in the backhalf of the frame. Turnovers and inaccurate passes killed Buffalo's chances of keeping the puck in the o-zone consistently. It also kept them behind the Canadiens in the shots on goal department for the rest of the way, as the Sabres were outshot 27-to-21.
Buffalo came into tonight as the fourth most penalized team in the NHL, averaging 10.6 penalties a game. They had a man go into the sin bin six times tonight.
"It started with poor puck play inside the offensive zone where we didn't get it deep," Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff said. "When you don't execute up ice, bad stuff can happen...they (the Canadiens) pressed hard, but we could've made better plays."
The Sabres were zero-for-five on the power play, only recording three shots on goal combined throughout those power plays.
As for their penalty kill, Buffalo went three-for-six. All three power play goals came on one-timer slap shots from right-winger Patrik Laine.
"A couple of individual mistakes," Ruff said. "If you look at the first one, that was our D's guy (defenseman Connor Clifton) to cover him and he (Clifton) raced to the other side. That's what we went over in our penalty kill meeting."
Center Dylan Cozens, right-winger JJ Peterka and defenseman Owen Power were the only ones to record a point for Buffalo as they had one each. Cozens picked up the lone goal while Peterka and Power were credited with assists.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen got the start between the pipes for the Sabres. He recorded 15 saves on 21 shots on goal to give him a .714 save percentage. James Reimer replaced Luukkonen to start the third period and recorded six saves while allowing no goals.
It was all Montréal to start the first period. 19 seconds in, right-winger Joel Armia buried a wrist shot in the top left corner of the cage after the puck deflected off of a referee's skate to Armia.
The goal got the Canadiens going on offense. With 13:34 left on Montréal's first power play of the night, Laine lit the lamp on a one-timer slap shot past Luukkonen's blocker to add insurance to the Canadiens' lead.
Halfway through the period, Montréal was outshooting Buffalo nine-to-zero as the Canadiens were able to generate numerous high scoring chances.
"That first goal just bothered us too much," Ruff said. "And then it was 'we were going to race here, race here.' I thought we settled down at about the 10 minute mark finally. We got organized, we started to look like a team."
After 20 minutes of play, Montréal was outshooting the Sabres 11-to-three.
Buffalo came out hot in the opening minutes of the second period. Cozens sniped the top right corner of the net on a wrist shot from the slot to cut the Canadiens' lead in half. Cozens extended his point streak against Montréal to three games after scoring.
The tables turned quickly a little under two minutes later. The Canadiens scored four unanswered goals in the period, two of which came from Laine.
By the end of the frame, both sides were tied in shots on goal with 10 apiece.
The third period was very quiet for both sides as scoring chances were very limited, which helped Montréal secure the victory. By the end of the period, Buffalo outshot the Canadiens eight-to-six in the frame alone.
Buffalo drops to 11-17-4 on the year and are now in last place in the Atlantic with the loss. Montréal improves to 12-16-3 and move up to sixth in the division.
The Sabres will host the Toronto Maple Leafs next on Friday. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m.
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