Sabres rally, finish off Habs in shootout
Thomas Vanek and Brad Boyes were perfect in the shootout for the Buffalo Sabres, so Jhonas Enroth didn't have to be.
Vanek and Boyes scored in the tiebreaker to help Buffalo beat the Montreal Canadiens 3-2 on Monday night.
Enroth, who started in place of injured starter Ryan Miller, stopped two of Montreal's three shootout attempts to improve to 6-0 this season.
''It makes my job easier when you have Vanek and Boyes and guys like that as the shooters,'' said Enroth, who made 25 saves during the game. ''They're pretty much 100 percent.''
Miller sustained a concussion Saturday night in a collision with Boston forward Milan Lucic in the Sabres' 6-2 loss to Boston. Lucic, who got a minor penalty for the hit, did not receive any additional sanctions following his hearing earlier in the day with league disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan.
''It was a little bit disappointing,'' said captain Jason Pominville, who scored 53 seconds into the third to launch Buffalo's comeback. ''Obviously, us, being on the side where the goalie gets hit, we would have liked to have action taken, especially that Ryan is going to miss time. At the same time I'm sure they have their reasons but we have our reasons, too, to think that it might open the door to other things to happen.
''I mean, if that's not a suspension, I don't know what can be on a goalie getting hit out of his space.''
Derek Roy also scored in regulation for Buffalo, which overcame a 2-0 deficit in the third period for its fourth victory in five games. Vanek assisted on both goals.
''We've got to move forward and this was a good test for us and I thought we responded in the right way tonight,'' Pominville said. ''The two points were what we wanted and we were able to dig deep and find away.''
Max Pacioretty and Erik Cole scored for the Canadiens, and Carey Price made 30 saves.
Montreal opened the scoring at 3:58 of the second. Defenseman P.K. Subban sent pass over to Cole, who ripped a slap shot from the left faceoff circle for his fourth of the season.
Pacioretty made it 2-0 with 5:43 left in the period when his shot just trickled past Enroth.
Pominville scored 53 seconds into the third period when he was left alone in the slot to beat Price.
The Sabres took advantage of Subban's turnover to tie it with 7:30 left in regulation. Vanek picked up the loose puck and sent it to Roy, who converted his sixth of the season on a delayed penalty against Montreal.
''We got away from our game there in the third period,'' said Pacioretty, who has four goals in five games. ''It doesn't matter that we were winning 2-0, we've got to play the game that made us successful. We got away from that. ''
NOTES: Montreal's Jaroslav Spacek left in the second period with an unspecified injury, leaving the Canadiens with just five defensemen. The Canadiens also lost center Andreas Engqvist to injury in the second period. The 23-year-old was called up earlier in the day from Hamilton of the AHL. ... The Sabres were without Miller and forwards Jochen Hecht (concussion) and Tyler Ennis (ankle).
