4 things that stood out in Sabres series‑swinging win over Canadiens

The last time we saw Buffalo Sabres goalie Ukka-Pekka Luukkonen, he was stewing on the bench at KeyBank Center during the third period of Game 2 against the Boston Bruins, having been pulled after allowing four goals. And for the next seven Stanley Cup playoff games - the last four against the Bruins and the first three of the second-round series against the Montreal Canadiens - Luukkonen was still glued to the bench watching Alex Lyon own the Buffalo crease. However, even though coach Lindy Ruff said following the Sabres’ 6-2 blowout loss in Game 3 Sunday that Lyon played very well despite allowing five goals, he still felt the team needed a spark, so he turned back to Luukkonen for Game 4 Tuesday night at Bell Centre, and what a decision that turned out to be.

UPL was outstanding as he blanked Montreal over the final two periods, stopping all 22 shots he faced, and Zach Benson’s power-play goal at 4:41 of the third turned out to be the winner as the Sabres held on for a thrilling 3-2 victory which sends the series back to Buffalo Thursday night tied at two games apiece. “I thought tonight we tightened things up,” Ruff told reporters. “We finally got to the place where we need to be.

It looked like our team again, from the way we started the game to the way we finished the game. ” Here are my observations: Tage Thompson scored a fluky goal Buffalo’s leading goal scorer has not been at his best in the postseason, but here’s the thing about Thompson: He’s a star, and even when he’s not humming he still has enough juice to score four goals and seven assists in the first 10 games of the postseason. Of course, talent had nothing to do with the goal he scored seven minutes into the second period which tied the game at 2-2.

The Sabres were one minute into a four-minute power play and could not get anything going on their entries, so rather than try to carry the puck into the zone, Thompson took the usual drop pass from Rasmus Dahlin and fired the puck into the left corner. The idea was for the Sabres to hunt it down and get set up, but they never got the chance because the puck took a crazy bounce off the boards and went right on the net and Montreal goalie Jakub Dobes couldn’t believe his eyes when it caught the back of his right leg and caromed into the net. “That felt like the hockey gods just giving us one back,” Mattias Samuelsson said.