Habs rack up seven goals to beat Sabres
Montreal's Max Domi and Tomas Tatar each had a goal and two assists, and the Canadiens rode a four-goal second period to a 7-4 win over the visiting Buffalo Sabres on Saturday night.
Brendan Gallagher scored twice and had an assist, Andrew Shaw had a goal and an assist, and Paul Byron and Artturi Lehkonen added goals for Montreal, which won its third straight and fourth in the past six games.
Tatar's three-point night came in his 500th NHL game, Phillip Danault had two helpers, and goaltender Carey Price made 23 saves for the Canadiens (40-28-7, 87 points), who finished 1-1-2 against Buffalo in the season series.
The victory increased the Canadiens' lead to three points over the idle Columbus Blue Jackets in the race for the second wild card in the East.
Sam Reinhart, Alexander Nylander, Marco Scandella and Jack Eichel had goals, and goalie Carter Hutton stopped 37 shots for the Sabres, who lost their second straight and are 3-13-2 in their past 18 games.
Eichel's goal was his career-high 26th in a season, and the fourth-year center has now scored against every NHL club.
Buffalo opened the scoring at 12:26 of the first. Reinhart and Casey Mittelstadt completed a perfect give-and-go play, with Reinhart dishing the puck to Mittelstadt in the corner, taking the return pass and scoring his 19th goal and 200th point of his five-year career.
Montreal tied it 1-1 at 5:09 of the second period on a spectacular three-man play. Domi dished the puck from the high slot to Shaw, who fired a cross-ice pass that Lehkonen chipped in for his ninth marker.
Domi's assist marked the 200th point of his career, and the Canadiens soon took their first lead four minutes later.
Danault's forecheck below the Buffalo goal line resulted in a turnover by rookie Rasmus Dahlin, and Danault's pass out front was put in by Gallagher for his 32nd goal.
Shaw scored his 18th goal after Domi saucered a pass to him in the slot, giving Montreal a 3-1 lead at 14:23. But Nylander's power-play tally 30 seconds later and Scandella's even-strength goal 75 seconds after that tied it 3-3.
Montreal, which fired 20 shots in the second, scored its fourth goal of the period when Byron pushed in a rebound at 18:03 to make it 4-3.
Gallagher scored his second at the 8:35 mark of the third to make it 5-3. Eichel got the deficit back to one with an unassisted goal, but Domi (power play) and Tatar (empty net) put the game away in the final five minutes.
--Field Level Media
