Thompson, Samuelsson suffer injuries in back-and-forth loss to Canadiens

Playing shorthanded for more than half the game, the Sabers lost a back-and-forth contest to end what had been a three-game winning streak. The game featured six lead changes, including a pair of one-goal leads for the Sabers in each of the second and third periods.

Buffalo led 3-2 with less than a minute left in the second period before a pair of goals from Nick Suzuki put Montreal ahead. Suzuki’s first goal, scored with 46.9 seconds on the clock, was the result of an odd-man rush. The next goal came 22 seconds later when Juraj Slafkovsky won a battle for a loose puck low and found Suzuki with space to shoot past Luukkonen.

“The last two that ended the second period obviously (are) brutal,” Sabers alternate captain Alex Tuch said. “When you have a lead with a minute left in the period, you can’t let that happen. Yeah, that’s just bad discipline.”

Ruff encouraged the Sabers to stick with it during the second intermission and assured his players they would have an opportunity to get back into the game. That chance came quickly in the form of a power-play goal from Rasmus Dahlin that tied the score at 4-4 just 1:58 into the third period. JJ Peterka got behind the Montreal defense and scored five holes to put the Sabers back in front less than two minutes later.

Again, the Canadiens responded with two goals of their own scored in quick succession. Emil Heineman scored on a shot through traffic to tie the game at 5-5 with 7:02 left. Just 25 seconds later, Dahlin was called for an elbow as he braced for an expected hit from Canadiens forward Jake Evans along the wall. It was the Sabres’ sixth minor penalty of the night.

“Way too many (penalties),” Dahlin said. “Especially my punishment. I take full ownership. It can’t happen.”

Cole Caufield scored the winning goal with 17 seconds left on the sure power play. Slafkovsky received a carom from the end boards to the right of the net and made a quick feed through the blue paint to set up the goal and earn his third assist of the night.

Christian Dvorak added an empty-net goal in the final minute to stave off the Sabres’ comeback attempt.

“This one I think we’re really going to learn from,” Dahlin said. “We got humbled today. I think we were very excited about our previous games and I don’t know. But we know that if you don’t show up 100 percent, it’s hard to win in this league. So we will work hard in the future.”