Buffalo thumps Montreal 8-3 at the Bell Centre to force a do-or-die decider

The Buffalo Sabres avoided elimination and then some with an 8-3 hammering of the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre to force a seventh game.

Sitting firmly in the driver’s seat with the Eastern Conference Finals, the Montreal Canadiens looked to give the party bus some gas and close out the series against the Buffalo Sabres at the Bell Centre on Saturday night.

The Sabres, however, had other ideas and laid a metaphorical tire spike line in front of the bus, halting the trip to North Carolina, and beat the Habs 8-3 to force a Game 7 in their barn on Monday.

Saturday night’s game was an eerily similar mirror image of Game 5, with Buffalo duplicating Montreal’s performance on Thursday night.

In the end, neither starting goalie was between the pipes, and the sold-out Bell Centre crowd was silent.

“There was definitely a few things that were self-inflicted,” said captain Nick Suzuki after the game. “They’re desperate, they’re coming in hard, they’re forechecking really hard, there are some plays that we’d want back for sure.”

Well, that escalated quickly

Like several games in the series, Buffalo was ready at the faceoff.

For the fifth time in the series, the Sabres scored first, and, on Saturday night, it took all of 32 seconds for captain Rasmus Dahlin to deke in on net and flip a backhand over goalie Jakub Dobes’ shoulder.

Dobes’ counterpart on the other end of the ice, however, slipped into a waking, skating nightmare soon after.

Three Habs shots on Alex Lyon later, and the home team was up 3-1.

Lyon failed to catch a clear point shot from Arber Xhekaj, before Ivan Demidov scored on the power play and Jake Evans scored short handed.

Sabre Jason Tucker scored one on the power play to make it a one-goal game with the Habs leading 3-2 heading into the second.

Sound familiar?

Bizarro world

The bizarro world version of Game 5 continued.

On Thursday, the Habs stormed back from 3-2 in the second to lead 5-3 heading into the third. On Saturday, it was Buffalo’s turn to do just that.

Second period goals from Zach Benson, Jack Quinn (power play) and Konsta Helenius meant it was the home side trailing and hoping for a third period comeback.

That comeback did not come, and Dobes’ night ended when Quinn scored another power play goal halfway through the third.

Jacob Fowler lasted two minutes before being pulled for the extra attacker with over seven minutes left.

When Tage Thompson scored on the empty net, Fowler was back in the net as hordes of fans decided not to get full value for their $1,000+ tickets and headed for the exits.

Zach Metsa scored his first playoff goal at 17:49 to make it 8-3.

Game seven is Monday night.

Some Game 7 fun facts

Following on the short history of game sevens posted two weeks ago, Montreal has a historic edge over Buffalo in final and deciding games.

The Montreal Canadiens are on a three-straight seven game winning streak, with all of those games away from home. Every one of those games ended 3-1.

Since the turn of the century, Montreal has played in eight game sevens, winning seven of those and all but one of them were hosted by their opponents.

The Sabres, on the other hand, have won just one of the seven game sevens the team has played, against Ottawa in 1997.

The last time the Habs played a Game 7 was Sunday, May 3, when they beat the Lightning 2-1.

The last time the Sabres played a Game 7 was April 26, 2011, when they lost 5-2 to the Flyers.

Before this year, that loss in Philadelphia was also the last Buffalo Sabres playoff game.