Jordan Greenway scored the winner early in the second period as the Buffalo Sabres earned a 1-0 series lead with a 4-2 Game 1 victory over the Montreal Canadiens.
Josh Doan and Ryan McLeod gave the Sabres an early two-goal lead in the first period, while Bowen Byram scored the insurance marker on the power play to put the game out of reach.
Nick Suzuki and Kirby Dach responded for Montreal late in the first and second periods, respectively.
Game 2 is scheduled for Friday night in Buffalo.
Doan opened the scoring on a 3-on-1 at 4:31 of the frame. After the puck hopped over Hutson’s stick in the neutral zone to create the odd-man rush, Benson slipped the puck past a diving Noah Dobson, and Doan tapped it into the wide-open net for the 1-0 lead.
The Sabres capitalized on their second power play of the game to open a 2-0 lead. After failing to gain the zone for much of the two minutes, Buffalo finally found some zone time late in the man advantage and added to their lead after a point shot ricocheted off several bodies in front and found Ryan McLeod at the side of the net, who beat a sprawling Jakub Dobes. Doan and Benson assisted on the goal for their second points of 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 would make no mistake on their third power play of the game as Byram fired a wrist shot through a crowd from the point and past 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 scored on two of their first three power plays against Montreal.
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 allowed more than three goals, and the first time the Canadiens trailed by more than one. Montreal trailed more in Game 1 (55:29) than they did in the entire series against the Tampa Bay Lightning (27:12).
