Jordan Greenway and Bowen Byram scored in the second as the Buffalo Sabres took a 4-2 lead over the Montreal Canadiens into the second intermission of Game 1.
Kirby Dach answered late in the period to help the Canadiens close the gap late in the period.
Greenway scored his first of the playoffs at 3:32 of the second when he walked into the zone and fired a shot just over the glove of a semi-screened Dobes. Mattias Samuelsson assisted on the marker.
Buffalo missed on a glorious chance to extend the lead minutes later on another two-on-one, but Jack Quinn rang his snap shot off the crossbar.
The Canadiens gave Buffalo their third power play of the game seconds later, and Buffalo would make no mistake as Byram fired a wrist shot through a crowd from the point and past Jakub Dobes to extend the lead to three goals at 9:01 of the period.
After going 1-for-24 with the man-advantage against the Boston Bruins, the Sabres have scored on two of their first three power plays in the second-round series.
With less than four minutes remaining in the period, Dach took advantage of a neutral zone turnover that created a two-on-one back the other way. After his initial shot was saved, Dach was able to bat the rebound over the shoulder of Alex Lyon to cut the deficit to 4-2.
It’s the first time in the 2025-26 playoffs that Dobes has allowed more than three goals and the first time the Canadiens have trailed by more than one goal. Montreal has already trailed more through two periods (35:29) in Game 1 than they did across the entire series against the Tampa Bay Lightning (27:12).
Josh Doan and Ryan McLeod scored for the Sabres in the first period, while Nick Suzuki responded for the Canadiens.
