MONTREAL (AP) — Zach Benson broke a tie on a third-period power play on his 21st birthday and the Buffalo Sabres beat the Montreal Canadiens 3-2 on Tuesday night in Game 4 to even the Eastern Conference semifinal series.
Benson took a pass in the slot from Josh Doan, kicked the puck to his stick and put a backhander past goalie Jakub Dobes at 4:41 of the third. The goal came with Jake Evans off for holding Peyton Krebs.
Game 5 is Thursday night in Buffalo, with Game 6 in Montreal on Saturday night. The series winner will face Carolina in the Eastern Conference final. The Hurricanes swept both of their series.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen replaced Alex Lyon in goal after the Sabres dropped Games 2 and 3, making 28 saves in his first action since being pulled in the third period of a Game 2 loss to Boston in the first round.
“At this point of the year, it doesn’t matter to me (if I start). As long as we win, that’s the most important thing,” Luukkonen said. “It feels good to come in and be able to help the team to win, too.”
Tage Thompson tied it for Buffalo in the second period with a fluke goal and also had an assist. Defenseman Mattias Samuelsson opened the scoring and Doan had two assists.
Alex Newhook and Cole Caufield scored for Montreal. Dobes stopped 19 shots.
“Broke them down a bunch, had our looks, goalie made some big saves and that kept him in it,” Caufield said. “Thought we played a pretty good game. There’s some things that we can always get better at, but to see a fluke goal like that go in, it’s obviously not the bounce you want.”
Thompson tied it at 2 on four-minute power play seven minutes into the second when his dump-in from just over center ice deflected off the glass in the left corner to the crease and bounced in off Dobes’ right leg.
“I’ll take it,” he said. “It’s a nice feeling when you see that.”
Buffalo got the extended power play when Montreal’s Alexandre Carrier was called for the double minor after high-sticking and cutting Rasmus Dahlin.
The Canadiens failed to take advantage of a four-minute power play of their own after Bowen Byram was sent off for high-sticking Alexandre Texier late in the second period. Montreal was 1 for 7 on the power play.
Buffalo opened the scoring on Samuelsson’s goal at 6:32 of the first period, and appeared it make it 2-0 1:30 later when a video review confirmed Jack Quinn’s shot crossed the goal line inside Dobes’ glove, However, Montreal successfully challenged for goalie interference on Konsta Helenius.
“Which I totally disagree with,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “Just for the fact that Dobes always is swinging his stick. He initiated the contact with Helenius … I really thought that that was going our way.”
Newhook then tied it at 1 with 9:52 left in the first with his fifth goal of the series and sixth of the playoffs. Caufield gave the Canadiens the lead with 13 seconds to go in the period, beating Luukkonen from close range on a power play.
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