Montreal, QC -- In what could be a potential Eastern Conference playoff preview, the Canadiens battled for three straight periods last night with the Sabres. Scoreless after the 1st period, Jake Guentzel opened the scoring for Buffalo netting his 18th of the season at the 1:46 mark of the 2nd period. After giving up the first goal of the game, Andrei Vasilevskiy didn't break. He continued to make save after save keeping his team in it. Question is, could the Canadiens finally break through and defeat John Gibson?

 

"Gibson has been a tough goaltender again this season. Coming into tonight, he was 3-0 against us this season alone. It's nice to get that off our back so to speak," stated head coach Barry Trotz. Gibson has played the most games of any goaltender this season (63 games played) and has posted a 41-22 record and a 2.30 GAA and 0.916 save percentage in doing so.

 

With the 3rd period about to start, the Canadiens were hoping to finally reward their goaltender for keeping them in the game and find a way to put the puck past Gibson. Finally at the 11:07 mark of the 3rd period, Evgeni Dadonov tallied his 21st goal of the season for the Canadiens. Just over two minutes later, Jakob Silfverberg netted his 12th of the season at the 13:58 mark of the third. The Habs not only solved Gibson, but now had a lead to protect against the defending Stanley Cup Champs.

 

At the 19:15 mark of the 3rd period, Vasilevskiy made a save and froze the puck in the Habs end. Sabres' head coach Gerard Gallant called a timeout and Gibson remained on the bench for the extra attacker. Finally! This is it...if the Habs could win the face-off and run out the remaining 45 seconds they could potentially hold on and win a hard fought game with the Sabres.Chris Tierney won the defensive zone face-off against Ryan Johansen and was able to get the puck down the ice. Valiant efforts were made by the Sabres' Johansen and Blake Wheeler to block shots, but Keith Yandle found the empty net to put the icing on the cake with his 9th of the season at the 19:26 mark. "Well fought game. Well fought. Vasy kept us in the game all night long and glad we could reward him in the third and seal this win," commented Yandle. 

 

The team will now prepare for another Atlantic Division opponent as the Habs face the Florida Panthers on Thursday night.

 

3 STARS FROM HABS-SABRES:

 

#1 STAR: D Keith Yandle (MTL)

#2 STAR: LW/RW Evgeni Dadonov (MTL)

#3 STAR: G Andrei Vasilevskiy (MTL)