Cole Caufield scored his second goal of the game 54 seconds into overtime to give the Montreal Canadiens a 4-3 victory against the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday at Centre Bell. Caufield picked up the unassisted winner on a snap shot to seal the extra session.
Josh Norris gave the Sabres an early lead at 8:21 of the opening period with a snap shot off a feed from Konsta Helenius. Montreal answered quickly on special teams when Zachary Bolduc deflected a shot past Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen on the power play at 11:45, with assists from Nick Suzuki and Juraj Slafkovsky. Caufield then put the Canadiens ahead 2-1 at 14:01 of the first period, snapping a shot home after passes from Slafkovsky and Alexandre Carrier.
Alexandre Texier extended Montreal's lead to 3-1 at 7:39 of the second period by snapping in his first goal of the season, assisted by Kaiden Guhle and Carrier. Buffalo fought back while down a skater, as Jack Quinn scored shorthanded at 9:52 with assists from Zach Benson and Mattias Samuelsson. The Sabres leveled the contest 3-3 at 10:12 of the third period when Tage Thompson buried a snap shot set up by Josh Doan and Jiri Kulich.
Montreal outshot Buffalo 34-26 and went 1-for-5 on the power play, while the Sabres failed to score on four opportunities with the man advantage. Jacob Fowler earned the win for the Canadiens by turning aside 23 of 26 shots. Luukkonen took the overtime loss for Buffalo after making 30 saves on 34 attempts.
The win moved Montreal to 4-3-1 on the season and improved their head-to-head mark against Buffalo to 2-0-0, following another 4-3 victory in a shootout on October 13. The Sabres saw their record shift to 4-3-2 after picking up one point in the overtime defeat.
Both teams continue their schedules at home. Montreal hosts the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday, while Buffalo hosts the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday.
