Overtime, game 7, one shot made the difference in the Buffalo Sabres and Montreal Canadiens series.
With a chance to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals, the Buffalo Sabres fell to the Montreal Canadiens at home on Monday night in overtime, 3-2, ending a historic season for Buffalo.
In the first period, Montreal got things going with a shot pass from Kaiden Guhle. The puck deflected off Phillip Denault's skate. Upon a quick review by the officials, Denault didn't seem to kick the puck, which would've disallowed the goal; instead, he placed his foot in a position to direct it in.
On Montreal's first powerplay of the night, Zachary Bolduc finished a feed from Nick Suzuki, making it 2-0. Lane Hutson was also credited with an assist. KeyBank Center was silenced.
Late in the first, Tage Thompson turned the puck over at the Montreal blue line, but Sabres goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen bailed him out with a breakaway save, keeping Buffalo trailing by two.
In the second period, after several scoring chances to get on the board, the Sabres got within one. Mattias Sammuelsson put a shot on net that tipped off Jordan Greenway, which found its way past Jakub Dobes, scoring on Buffalo's 16th shot of the night.
Momentum started to shift in the Sabres' favor towards the end of the 2nd period and into the 3rd. With speed, Owen Power rushed into the Montreal zone and connected with Rasmus Dahlin to tie the game, one of the most clutch and beautiful goals of the postseason for Buffalo.
The Sabres thought they had the go-ahead goal when Beck Malenstyn poked the puck under Dobes's pads into the net. An official blew the play dead right before it crossed the red line, thinking Dobes had the puck covered. The official ruled it no goal as the Sabres celebrated.
Buffalo outshot the Canadiens 34-22 as regulation expired.
In overtime, 11:22 in, Montreal forward Alex Newhook beat Luukkonen glove side to clinch the Eastern Conference Finals for the Canadiens.
After the loss, Sabres Head Coach Lindy Ruff said he didn't get an explanation on the waived-off goal.
"I thought it was a little bit of a quick whistle, because you can always go back and look at those, but I didn't really get an explanation on it," said Ruff.
Despite losing five of seven games at home in the playoffs, Ruff says this is a big step forward for the organization.
“This is a giant step for us, a giant step for all the players to really get a feel what it's really like to be proud of being a Buffalo Sabre, to be proud of playing here, and you know, I took the job, I thought number one was I wanted these guys to like being a Buffalo Sabre, I think they like being a Sabre, and I think they did our city proud, wasn't the result we wanted." Ruff added, "They're all disappointed, but they gave me everything they had in their tank.”
An emotional and stunned Tage Thompson said the team needs to reflect on this moment and build off of it going into next season.
"I think everyone in here felt like this was going to be different, and probably felt like we deserved a little better outcome, but that is how it goes sometimes. We just got to, unfortunately, take that taste with us into the summer and do something about it," said Thompson.
One shot made the difference in the series. With tears in his eyes, Luukkonen says it hurts that much more because of it.
"I think it just kind of weighs that extra, knowing how much you know we have put in this season as a group, how much we kind of battle through, and it boils down to one game and one moment, it doesn't feel good," said Luukkonen.
Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin had a similar disappointing response: "One shot decides the whole season, it sucks."
Montreal will play Carolina in the Eastern Conference Finals. The winner of that series will play the winner of the Western Conference Finals between the Vegas Golden Knights and the Colorado Avalanche in the Stanley Cup Finals.
