BUFFALO, N.Y. — Cayden Primeau made a career-high 46 saves and Juraj Slafkovsky scored in the fourth round of the shootout to lead the Montreal Canadiens to a 3-2 win against the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday night.
Primeau stopped two out of four Sabres shooters in the shootout. Jayden Struble and Nick Suzuki scored for the Canadiens.
Jeff Skinner and Kyle Okposo each had a goal and Devon Levi made 29 saves for the Sabres, who are winless in six of eight games.
The Canadiens got out to a 2-0 lead in the second period when Struble and Suzuki scored 14 seconds apart.
Buffalo's Eric Robinson received a five-minute major for boarding and a game misconduct and Montreal’s Kaiden Guhle went off on a roughing minor 11 minutes into the second period. Struble deflected a shot from Johnathan Kovacevic past Levi at 12:59 during the 4-on-4 for his first NHL goal. Suzuki’s goal came at 13:13 during the power play when he wired a shot past Levi.
Skinner made it 2-1 at 1:06 of the third period when Tage Thompson set him up in the slot and snapped it past Primeau for his 12th of the season.
Okposo made it 2-2 at 6:36 when he buried a rebound of a Connor Clifton shot. The goal was Okposo’s 600th NHL point.
Canadiens forward Tanner Pearson left the game with an upper-body injury after the first period and did not return.
Sabres star defenseman Rasmus Dahlin returned to the lineup after a one-game absence. Dahlin did not play Thursday night in the Sabres 3-1 win against Boston due to a nagging undisclosed injury.
UP NEXT
Canadiens: Host Nashville on Sunday night.
Sabres: Host Arizona on Monday night.