The Montreal Canadiens are 40 minutes away from advancing to the Eastern Conference finals, as they lead the Buffalo Sabres 3-2 through the first period at the Bell Centre Saturday night.
The Canadiens lead the series 3-2.
After goals rained down to begin Game 5, the same happened to begin Game 6, with each team finding the back of the net within the first 1:40.
As they did in Game 5, Buffalo struck first, with defenceman Rasmus Dahlin’s backhand beating Montreal’s Jakub Dobes. The goal was scored on the Sabres’ first shot of the game and only 31 seconds in.
Just over a minute later, however, the Canadiens answered back thanks to blueliner Arber Xhekaj, to tie things up at one.
Montreal was next on the board as well, as Ivan Demidov capitalized on the power play for his second of the playoffs with Dahlin in the box. That gave the Habs a 2-1 lead nearly midway through the period.
That lead grew just two minutes later, as Jake Evans beat Sabres netminder Alex Lyon shorthanded to extend Montreal’s lead to 3-1.
Before the period’s end, however, Buffalo’s Jason Zucker found the back of the net on the power play to bring the Sabres within one heading into intermission.
