The Montreal Canadiens defeated the Buffalo Sabres 4-3 in a shootout on Tuesday at Centre Bell. Alexandre Texier delivered the decisive conversion in the second round of the tiebreaker after Montreal surrendered a two-goal lead in the third period.
Olen Zellweger opened the scoring for Buffalo at 2:16 of the first period with his first goal of the season, assisted by Mattias Samuelsson and Beck Malenstyn. Montreal leveled the contest at 14:28 on a snap shot from Lane Hutson during a power play. Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky picked up the assists on Hutson's first goal of the campaign. Montreal then took the lead early in the second period when Caufield scored off passes from Slafkovsky and Nick Suzuki. Josh Anderson extended the Canadiens advantage to 3-1 at 19:10 of the second, converting a feed from Hutson and Zachary Bolduc.
Buffalo answered with two goals in a 61-second span early in the third period. Josh Norris brought the Sabres within one at 4:24 with his first goal of the year, assisted by Dennis Gilbert and Malenstyn. Zellweger followed with his second of the game at 5:25 to make it 3-3, set up by Zach Benson and Samuelsson. After a scoreless overtime, Caufield and Tage Thompson traded goals in the first round of the shootout. Texier scored in the second round while Jacob Fowler stopped Jack Quinn, and Bolduc sealed the outcome in the third round.
Fowler earned the victory for Montreal with 13 saves on 16 shots, while Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen took the overtime loss after stopping 35 of 38 shots. The Canadiens converted 1 of 3 opportunities on the man advantage, and Buffalo failed to score on five power-play chances.
With the win, Montreal improved to 3-2-1 on the season and extended its winning streak to two games. The Sabres moved to 3-3-1 overall, taking their first loss against the Canadiens in their season series.
Montreal continues its schedule at home against the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday, October 20. Buffalo returns to action when it hosts the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday, October 21.
