On Wednesday, the Montreal Canadians visit upstate New York to play the Buffalo Sabres in an NHL Eastern Conference showdown. The Canadians evened their record at 1-1 on Saturday with a 6-5 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs in a shootout. Paul Byron scored for the Canadians in the shootout. Montreal had trailed earlier in the game by three goals before rallying to tie and send it to overtime.
Buffalo lost to the Columbus Blue Jackets in overtime on Monday 4-3. Alexandre Texier scored at 2:08 of the extra period to beat the Sabres. Victor Olofsson, Jeff Skinner and Marcus Johansson scored for Buffalo in the loss, while Linus Ullmark made 40 saves in net for the Sabres. The loss was Buffalo’s first after opening the season with two wins.
Tomas Tatar, Jordan Weal, Jesperi Kotkaniemi and five other Canadians have each scored one goal apiece. Brendan Gallagher leads Montreal in assists with two and in points with three. Carey Price is 1-0-1 with goals against of 3.69 and save percentage of .900. Montreal is scoring 4.00 goals per game while allowing 4.00 per game.
Victor Olofsson leads Buffalo in goals scored with three, while Rasmus Dahlin is the team leaders in assists with four and in points with five. Carter Hutton is 2-0-0 with goals against of 1.50 and save percentage of .939. Buffalo is scoring 4.33 goals per game while allowing 2.33 per game.
