Benoit Pouliot scored two goals, the second from a narrow angle, to help the Montreal Canadiens to a 3-2 victory over the slumping Buffalo Sabres on Friday.
The win extended the Canadiens’ Northeast Division lead to three points over the Boston Bruins. Montreal have 17 points from 13 games, while Boston, who lost 5-3 to Washington on Friday, have 14 from 10.
The Sabres have now lost five successive games, though one of those was in overtime, remain winless at home and have fallen to the bottom of the division with eight points from 14 games.
Buffalo twice held the lead in the game, however Montreal equalized within two minutes on both occasions. Mike Grier opened the scoring for Buffalo late in the first period before Jeff Halpern tied the score about 80 seconds later.
Jordan Leopold put the Sabres ahead again midway through the second period, this time for just 46 seconds before Pouliot scored his first goal of the game.
Pouliot then produced a low hard slap shot from a bad angle past Sabres goalie Patrick Lalime with less than three minutes remaining in the second period to give Montreal the lead for the first time, which they held throughout a scoreless final period.
Lalime, in goal for the injured Ryan Miller who has an undisclosed lower body injury and is listed as day-to-day, made 29 saves in the loss, though he felt his side had done enough to win.
“We played an excellent game, to be honest. Those are the kinds of games that we play and I like our chances of winning most of the nights,” Lalime said. “We did a lot of good things and we deserve way better, that’s for sure.”
Canadiens goaltender Carey Price also made 29 saves, including 15 in the first period, and received praise from Halpern for his efforts.
“Our goalie was unbelievable, especially in the first period,” said Halpern, who also had two assists in addition to his goal.
“They were outshooting us and out chancing us. But he’s been doing it all,” he added.
In other NHL action, it was:
‧ Capitals 5, Bruins 3
‧ Stars 6, Coyotes 3
‧ Red Wings 3, Oilers 1
‧ Rangers 3, Devils 0
‧ Ducks 3, Penguins 2
‧ Panthers 7, Hurricanes 4
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