The Buffalo Sabres had their backs against the wall in a 2-1 hole heading into Game 4 of the club’s second-round Stanley Cup Playoff series against the Montreal Canadiens. While Tuesday night’s contest was not an elimination game, a Buffalo loss would have essentially sealed the Sabres fate in the series.
After two consecutive dismal defeats In games two and three, the Sabres season was on the line at the Bell Centre.
Buffalo responded with it’s best complete effort of the series with a 3-2 victory that evened the best-of-seven match-up with Montreal at two games a piece.
“Really our full 60 (minutes) Our start was unbelievable,” said center Tage Thompson. “Coming in after the first period, being down 2-1, definitely didn’t feel like we should have been. A goal called back, a couple of things that didn’t really go our way.”
The Sabres had a much better response to adversity in Game 3, than they had in game two and stuck to the game plan that had brought them so much success this season.
“Emotions were a little high,” explained Thompson. “We had the same thing happen to us in game three and we kind of let the emotions get the better of us. When you talk about learning your lesson and moving forward, that’s what we did. We learned our lesson in a similar situation coming into the first intermission, did a way better job of regrouping, calm ourselves back down. I thought we played a great game.”
The game was tied at two heading into the third period and Buffalo grabbed the lead for good at the 15:19 mark of the final frame on Zach Benson’s fourth goal of the postseason. From that point on, the Sabres team defense went to work to close out the must win.
“We tightened it up defensively, still can be a little better. The way we locked it down in the third was awesome.”
Buffalo’s lineup changes On Tuesday saw the return of netminder Ukko-Pekka-Luukkonen to the crease in place of Alex Lyon, the outstanding NHL postseason debut for center Konsta Helenius and two-time Stanley Cup Champion Luke Schenn seeing his first postseason action on the Sabres blueline.
The roster moves led to the desired result as Buffalo turned in yet another solid road performance.
With the Sabres win, the series is now a best-of-three, as the series heads back to Buffalo for a critical game five on Thursday.
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