The Montreal Canadiens went from heel to toe to notch the first six shots of Saturday’s third period against the Buffalo Sabres.
Down a goal, chasing their closest divisional rivals in the standings, the Canadiens had their backs against the wall. It was put there by a punishing Sabres forecheck and then pinned there by their own lack of discipline towards the end of the second period.
The Canadiens took three penalties—interrupted only by one from the Sabres—and fell down 2-1.
But they pushed back with that flurry to start the third, with Cole Caufield’s 31st goal of the season the eventual fruit of that momentum-swinging labour.
His neat tip from the high slot came in the fifth minute of the frame to tie the game, and his 32nd just over five minutes later, put the Canadiens in position to win it.
What they did over the final 9:47 of play to hold that position only further exemplified the character with which they undertook this week.
It started with Brendan Gallagher saying: “It’s hard not to look at the upcoming games and see what you have.”
That was after Monday’s practice, as part of a media availability that forced him to relive the Canadiens blowing a third-period lead in a loss to the pursuing Boston Bruins last Saturday—a game that followed a 4-2 loss to the Sabres.
You can imagine Gallagher left the rink that day thinking about the Vegas Golden Knights, the Colorado Avalanche, the Sabres, and the Canadiens’ loose hold on the first wild-card spot in a vice-tight playoff race.
Surely Gallagher wasn’t alone in thinking his team’s character was facing the ultimate test.
Three wins later, the Canadiens earned an A+.
After wiping the sweat away from a nail-biting overtime win over the Vegas Golden Knights Tuesday, the Canadiens pasted the league-leading Colorado Avalanche 7-3 to edge their way towards that grade.
But Saturday’s resilient 4-2 win over the Sabres, which was stamped by Oliver Kapanen’s empty-net goal, sealed it.
A third loss in a row in a span of 16 days to the Sabres would’ve sullied it, even considering how dominant Buffalo had been.
The Sabres’ two wins earlier this week made it five in a row for them. They beat the Toronto Maple Leafs and Los Angeles Kings by a combined score of 11-5 to pad their ridiculous run as the highest-scoring team in the league since Dec. 9.
The Sabres came into Saturday’s game with a league-leading 20-3-1 record since that date, and they were a perfect 17-0-0 when leading through two periods over that stretch.
Alex Lyon was looking to extend his franchise record with an 11th straight win, and Alex Tuch told reporters in Buffalo on Saturday morning that the Sabres would bleed to get it for him.
But it was the Canadiens who proved more desperate in the end.
It started with Jakub Dobes, who battled to make 10 of his 36 saves on the night after Caufield scored his second goal.
Between Caufield completing the play started by Kirby Dach and set up by Nick Suzuki and Kapanen’s insurance marker, the Canadiens also fought hard, blocking seven shots, killing a penalty—and six-on-four and six-on-five advantages.
But they also pressed and had three quality scoring chances—suppressed only by Lyon—to make last Saturday’s loss to the Bruins a distant memory.
The gutsy performance pushed the Canadiens back into third place in the division, placing them two points up on both the Sabres and Bruins. It got them to one point back of the Detroit Red Wings, who are in second, and to three back of the leading Lightning, who still have three games in-hand. It also capped a week that saw them prove what coach Martin St. Louis said about them after the win over the Avalanche.
“We’re playing good hockey,” he said, “and we’ve been able to correct ourselves.”
St. Louis didn’t like the Canadiens’ forecheck in the first period of their last game against the Sabres, but it’s been at the heart of every win since.
He didn’t love his penalty kill against the Bruins, but it stepped up to kill eight of nine this week.
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And while the coach didn’t blame Samuel Montembeault for allowing two goals in 12 seconds in the third period of that loss to the Bruins, he knew what role Dobes played in the wins over the Golden Knights, Avalanche and Sabres.
“Dobes played an excellent game,” St. Louis said during his post-game press conference at KeyBank Center.
He added that the guys in front of him were “a pain to play against.”
The Canadiens matched the Sabres in that regard through the first, but it was really only after the Sabres put them in a difficult spot in the second that we once again saw their true colours.
They flashed them all week, and now they’ll be challenged to keep doing so through the final two games before the Olympic break.
