Jack Eichel scores twice as Marcus Johansson nets the game-winner for Buffalo.
By Chris Ryndak / Sabres.com
BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Buffalo Sabres’ power play has been a force to be reckoned with early this season.
Buffalo went 2-for-5 with the man advantage in their 5-4 overtime victory Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday at KeyBank Center.
Marcus Johansson scored the winner just as a power play expired 1:30 into the extra period.
Jack Eichel had a four-point night, including a pair of electrifying goals while Victor Olofsson and Jeff Skinner also beat Habs goaltender Keith Kinkaid. Sabres goaltender Carter Hutton made 23 saves to improve to 3-0-0 on the season.
Rasmus Dahlin added two assists to extend his own point streak to four games.
What happened
Montreal started the game off strong with several quality chances on Hutton in the early goings. Then the Sabres went on the power play at the 3:59 mark and quickly found their footing.
Olofsson scored to put the Sabres up 1-0 and they held that lead until the Canadiens mounted their first comeback of the night.
Montreal tied the game with 5:54 remaining in the first when Joel Armia waited out Hutton at the top of the crease to beat the Sabres netminder shorthanded.
The Canadiens took a 2-1 lead on the power play when Armia, who was Buffalo’s first-round pick in 2011, was left all alone in front and put the puck past Hutton with 20.1 seconds remaining.
Eichel opened up the second period with his first of the night coming at the 4:46 mark of the period with hard, accurate writer from the left faceoff circle on the power play.
Skinner gave Buffalo a 4-2 lead 47 seconds into the third period, but Montreal rallied back with a pair of goals. First, Jesper Kotkaniemi scored 57 seconds later and then Ben Chiarot scored with 7:06 remaining to tie the game 4-4.
What it means
Buffalo improves to 3-0-1 on the season – the franchise’s best start since the 2009-10 season – and has won both of its first two home games for the first time since the 2008-09 season, when they won the first three.
Olofsson made NHL history as each of his 6 career goals have come on the man advantage.
As @SabresPR tweeted out after his first-period goal, Olofsson tied an NHL record by becoming the fourth player in NHL history to score each of his first 6 goals on the power play, joining Craig Norwich, Sylvain Turgeon, and Jeff Norton.
Olofsson now has scored in each of Buffalo’s last 3 games and tied James Neal for the NHL lead with 4 power-play goals this season.
Coming up
The 3-game homestand continues Friday night when the Florida Panthers come to town. It’s a 7 pm faceoff with the GMC Game Night pregame show beginning at 6:30 pm on MSG.