The Sabres came into tonight's game winners of their last two games straight and looking to make it three in a row.
Buffalo, seeming to find a bit of defensive stability in the last couple games, has helped this club get out of the five-game slide they had in November.
Meanwhile Montreal had struggles of their own going 4-4-2 in their last 10 games played.
Buffalo took a 1-0 lead on the Habs when Thomas Vanek netted his 16th goal of the season on the power play at the 13:31 mark. Montreal had some great opportunities in the first period but goaltender Patrick Lalime was unable to be beaten in the first.
Montreal looked re-energized for the second period and Andrei Kostitsyn got the Habs on the board just under three minutes into the second.
Thomas Vanek came back five minutes later to answer the Kostitsyn goal by netting his second of the night and 17th of the year.
Montreal had outplayed Buffalo up to this point in the second and had to be frustrated looking at the scoreboard. Buffalo had been chasing their tails around in their own end the entire period but had the lead until Steve Begin tied the game up on a beautiful one timer that beat Lalime to tie the game at two.
That goal was compliments of missed assignment on the part of the Sabres. it seemed once Montreal smelled the blood they were hungry.
Again/ poor defensive play in the second lead to the eventual game winner scored by Andrei Markov with under two minutes remaining in the second period to give Montreal the 3-2 lead.
Buffalo had a Jekyll-and-Hyde third period, with some great opportunities but also some terrible breakdowns. Derek Roy had a gift given to him in the third period and decided to shoot the puck 5 feet over the net rather into the empty portion of the net that Carey Price was not occupying.
I am taking nothing away from Price who was stellar to say the least in Montreal's win.
But Buffalo tonight beat themselves. The Sabres will head home tonight, take a healthy skate Sunday morning and get ready for Monday's tilt vs. the Predators at the HSBC Arena.
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