| |
RECAP
|
BOX SCORE
MONTREAL (AP) -- After leading the Buffalo Sabres to their second
win in as many nights, Stu Barnes felt much better than he looked.
Barnes, who broke his nose the night before, had a goal and an
assist to lead the Sabres to a 5-3 victory over the Montreal
Canadiens on Saturday night.
|  | | The Sabres didn't lose their step vs. Montreal on Saturday. |
"I'm OK, I feel fine," said Barnes, who had bruises under both
eyes and stitches across the bridge of his nose.
Barnes, who assisted on J.P. Dumont's first-period goal,
scored his sixth goal of the season 3:11 into the third to give the
Sabres a 4-3 lead.
"To play the game he played tonight, I don't think you can say
enough about him," Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff said.
Montreal tied it at 1:55 of the third on Juha Lind's second
goal.
Vladimir Tsyplakov scored 10 seconds into the game and Eric
Boulton scored his first NHL goal in the second period for Buffalo,
which beat the New York Rangers 3-2 on Friday night.
"We won a big one last night and tonight, obviously being up
like we were, if we had lost it would have been a heartbreaker,"
Barnes said. "But the guys battled down the stretch and it was
great to come out on top."
Miroslav Satan, who had two assists, scored into an empty net
with 50 seconds left.
"With the nature of the way the game went, it was very
impressive to get that win," Ruff said. "That was a really gutsy
effort."
Montreal, which fired coach Alain Vigneault and general manager
Rejean Houle on Monday, has won once and lost twice since the
shakeup. The Canadiens have just two wins and one tie in their last
15 games and are last overall in the NHL with a 6-15-2 record.
Montreal got second-period goals from Eric Landry and Sergei
Zholtok as the Canadiens closed within one twice in the period.
Landry fired a slap shot past Martin Biron at 2:46 to cut the lead to
2-1.
After Boulton restored the Sabres' two-goal advantage at 6:39,
Zholtok, who led the Canadiens with 26 goals last season, scored
his first of the season on a power play 16:11 into the period to
draw Montreal within one.
"You get in a slump like this and it makes you a better
person," Zholtok said. "It gives you a good perspective on
life."
Zholtok went on to demonstrate what he learned from the
experience by downplaying the significance of the goal.
"Getting one goal is no big deal," he said. "We have to keep
working hard because the coach is expecting more production from
us."
Lind, who scored his first goal of the season in Montreal's 6-0
win at Atlanta on Thursday, scored for the second straight game
1:55 into the third period.
Barnes put Buffalo ahead again just 76 seconds later when he
batted a loose puck past Canadiens goalie Mathieu Garon at the edge
of the crease.
"I was just standing in the right place," Barnes said. "I was
lucky enough to have some net to shoot at."
Tsyplakov scored on the first shot of the game, beating Garon,
who registered a shutout two nights earlier in his first NHL start.
Dumont gave Buffalo a 2-0 lead at 2:12 when he directed Barnes' pass on a 2-on-1 break past Garon for his seventh goal of
the season.
"We played well for 55 minutes," Montreal coach Michel
Therrien said. "I'm disappointed about the first five minutes. I
was disappointed with the way we came out. We were tense. We've got
to be sure that the next game we're ready at the start."
Game notes
Buffalo's Chris Gratton was given an instigator penalty for
his second-period fight with Jason Ward. Boulton also fought
earlier in the period with Montreal defenseman Craig Rivet. ...
Sabres defenseman Jay McKee left the game after he was driven into
the boards by Canadiens forward Patrick Poulin in the first period.
... A sellout crowd of 21,273 was on hand.
| |
ALSO SEE
NHL Scoreboard
Buffalo Clubhouse
Montreal Clubhouse
RECAPS
Atlanta 2
Washington 1
Buffalo 5
Montreal 3
Detroit 4
NY Islanders 3
Ottawa 4
Toronto 2
Florida 2
Tampa Bay 1
Los Angeles 2
Pittsburgh 2
Dallas 4
Columbus 2
Edmonton 3
Anaheim 2
St. Louis 5
Phoenix 1
Colorado 3
Calgary 2
New Jersey 3
San Jose 2
|
