- Alex Newhook scored twice and Jakub Dobes made 24 saves in a 5-1 Habs win
- Mike Matheson buried a rocket through traffic to make it 2-0 inside the first five minutes
- Read below for the goal-by-goal video, a look at Dobes’ bounce-back, and what’s next for Game 3 in Montreal
The Canadiens didn’t need their top line tonight.
Alex Newhook scored twice and Jakub Dobes stopped 24 shots as Montreal hammered the Buffalo Sabres 5-1 in Game 2 on Friday night, evening the second-round series at one game apiece. Buffalo never got a chance to find its footing.
Newhook opened the scoring 1:36 into the game, parking himself in the slot and redirecting a Kaiden Guhle shot past Alex Lyon. Mike Matheson followed three minutes later, ripping a shot through traffic and over Lyon’s right shoulder for his first goal of the postseason.
Watch Newhook and Matheson light it up in the opening five minutes:
The Habs kept rolling in the second. Jake Evans and Newhook broke in 2-on-1, and Newhook tapped home the cross-ice feed at 4:47 of the period for his third goal of the playoffs.
That made it 3-0 and quieted a KeyBank Center crowd that was a major factor in Buffalo’s Game 1 win.
Buffalo got one back when Zach Benson redirected a point shot late in the second to cut the lead to 3-1. The Sabres had life. They didn’t have it long.
Alexandre Carrier forced a turnover off Tage Thompson early in the third and finished the odd-man rush to make it 4-1. Nick Suzuki added an empty-netter for the only top-line goal of the night.
Dobes was the other story. He looked like a different goalie on Friday after a tough Game 1, stopping 24 of 25 shots with Benson’s redirect the only one to slip through.
The 24-year-old has been Montreal’s spine through this run, with a 41-save night against Carolina earlier in the season and a rebound start in the Game 7 win over Tampa Bay.
Catch the full Game 2 highlights here:
Game 3 goes Sunday at the Bell Centre. Montreal gets its first home crowd of the round, and the bottom of the lineup just bought the top line another night to find its game.
