Tage Thompson sustained a lower-body injury during a 7-5 loss for the Buffalo Sabres against the Montreal Canadiens at KeyBank Center on Monday.

Thompson, who tied for the NHL goal-scoring lead with his 11th goal of the season during the first period, skated one shift in the second before exiting the game. Defenseman Mattias Samuelsson also left the game midway through the second period with a lower-body injury.

The game featured six lead changes. Buffalo led 5-4 during the third period, but goals scored 2:58 apart by Emil Heineman and Cole Caufield put Montreal ahead for good.

Dylan Cozens, Peyton Krebs, Ramus Dahlin, and JJ Peterka scored goals for the Sabres along with Thompson. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 14 saves on 18 shots in two periods before giving way to Devon Levi, who made two saves on four shots.

Josh Anderson, Cole Caufield (2), Nick Suzuki (2), Emil Heineman, and Christian Dvorak scored for the Canadiens. Cayden Primeau got the start in net for Montreal, making 9 saves on 14 shots before being lifted for Sam Montembeault who finished the game with 4 saves on 4 shots in the third period.

HOW IT HAPPENED

First Period

The two teams traded goals within a span of 28 seconds, including Thompson’s NHL-leading 11th goal of the season.

Anderson opened the scoring on a breakaway 4:14 into the contest. Thompson responded on the very next shift, driving around Caufield to the net and burying a shot between Primeau’s pads.

Second Period

Buffalo and Montreal combined to score five goals in the second period, all of which came in two quick spurts.

The Canadiens started the first run with a power-play goal from Caufield, who deflected a shot from Hutson 5:26 into the period. The Sabres answered just 19 seconds later with their own deflection from Cozens, who positioned himself in the slot and got his stick on a point shot from Rasmus Dahlin. Then, just less than a minute later, Krebs picked up a pass from Byram on the blue line and wristed a shot past Primeau for Buffalo’s first lead of the game.

In the final minute, the Canadiens answered back. Suzuki scored the tying and go-ahead goals 22 seconds apart, both on assists from Dach and Slafkovsky.

Third Period

The back-and-forth nature of the game continued in the third period.

The Sabres tied the game on a power play goal by Dahlin who wired a shot from the point past Primeau. Peterka followed it up by driving through the neutral zone to the Montreal net and putting one through the five-hole to give the Sabres a 5-4 lead.

Montreal came back with two goals in two minutes just after the midway mark of the period to grab hold of the game. Heineman tied the game at 5-5 before a one-timer by Caufield, his second of the game, made it 6-5.

Dvorak scored an empty netter with 48 seconds left in the game to seal with Canadiens win.

GAME HIGHLIGHTS

GAME PHOTOS

UP NEXT

The Sabres will host the St. Louis Blues on Thursday at KeyBank Center. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:30pm on ESPN+ and Hulu with the radio call on WGR550. Tickets are available here.