The Sabers defeated the Canadiens in Game 1 behind the strength of the power play

BUFFALO — It’s taken Buffalo Sabres 14 years to go back to the NHL playoffs – and they finally brought their power play with them.

The buffalo is defeated Montreal 4-2 Wednesday featured a multigoal performance in Game 1 of their second-round Eastern Conference playoff series with extras that the Sabers haven’t produced since the last time they tallied two power-play markers on March 31.

Since March, the Sabers went 0-20 on the man advantage to end the regular season and were a surprisingly poor 1-for-24 on the power play in the first-round series against them. Boston. Frankly, Buffalo was sick of hearing about his disappointing special teams performance.

“I mean, that’s part of it, right?” Josh Doan Talk about changing the description. “That’s one (goal) in the series that’s over, and we’ve already had two in this series. So, it’s been going well. And obviously it’s been hit-or-miss throughout the end of the year, and tonight was one of those nights where we had to have more of a push to recover. We lost a lot of battles and lost a lot easily and to credit (one) but to credit we lost a lot.”

Buffalo controlled Game 1 from the jump and Dwan was a key part of that. He saw the Sabers take a 1-0 lead early in the first period, and Ryan McLeod Midway through the frame, Buffalo extended it to 2-0 with its first power-play goal (which Don assisted).

Canadian captain Nick SuzukiAn extra skater got his team on the board with less than a minute to go in the opening frame, but the Sabers quickly regained their multi-goal lead when Jordan Greenway Light the lamp for 3½ minutes per second.

Bowen Byram recorded his fourth goal of the postseason on Buffalo’s power play attempt in the second period and though Kirby Dutch With a goal late in the frame to make things interesting, a scoreless final period put the Sabers in line for the win.

“We took advantage of some good breaks,” coach Lindy Ruff said of Buffalo’s power-play success. “We made some good plays.”

Alex Lyon was — and has been — a key factor in the Sabers reaching their current pinnacle. he was Ukko-pekka hidesIts backup to open the series against Boston, but when Lukkonen stumbled — with an .825 save percentage in the first two games — Lyon emerged as a savior.

Since replacing Lukkonen late in Game 2 of the first round, Lyon is 4-1 as the Sabres’ starter with a .950 save percentage.

But despite Buffalo scoring high in multiple categories against the Canadiens, Ruff wants to see more from his players before Game 2 on Friday — especially since they’ve had plenty of time to rest since wrapping up the Boston series nearly a week ago.

“Three to four days off affects guys in different ways,” says Ruff. “You got a couple of good practices and some players came on really well. I think in my eyes the other guys were a step behind. Overall, I thought some of our puck decisions were even, though. There were a few situations in the game where we gave them a little bit of speed.”

The Sabers tapped into their own depth Wednesday night. Buffalo stifled most of Montreal’s top talent at even strength, and while the Sabres’ stars failed to register on the scoresheet, their third-string performers such as Don and Jack Benson — with two points — was the difference maker.

Ruff knows how valuable those contributions are, especially how the Canadiens’ top line didn’t register an even-strength goal until Game 7 of the first round and was silenced again in that department on Wednesday.

“Those big goals (in Montreal in the first round) weren’t scored by big players,” Ruff said. “And I think that’s the strength of our team. That’s been the strength of our team all year. We can put numbers on them. But I think on nights maybe sometimes your best players are taken care of or don’t have their best night, we had another line that stepped up … and that’s what we saw tonight.”

There are some injury concerns for the Sabers as captain Rasmus Dahlin left the ice after blocking a shot by Jake Evans Towards the end of the third period. It appeared to be a knee problem that sent Dahlin back to the dressing room, but he returned to the bench area.

Ruff said Dahlin “seems good” to walk down the hallway postgame, but acknowledged that the medical staff has yet to discuss it.

For the Canadians, Wednesday’s result was a single salvo from which to build. Coach Martin St. Louis already thought he could recognize progress from the first-round series Tampa BayAnd he expressed confidence that his group in Game 2 is even better.

“What I loved was a completely different feeling than against Tampa,” St. Louis said. “I felt like our top guys got more touch and space and that’s what I liked. You’ve got to handle the puck in the O-zone. A lot of 50-50 battles, you’ve got to be on the right side of it … and we’ve got to do better there. But I like that we fought back.

“It’s not the start we wanted in the game and the series. But we’re going to keep going.”