Game

Canadiens at Sabres

Canadiens 4, Sabres 2 · first star Cole Caufield (2 G, 1 A).

2025-26 regular season · Preseason. The 2026-27 regular season starts Sep 29. Data as of September 28, 2026, source NHL.

Montreal Canadiens 4 at Buffalo Sabres 2

Canadiens MTL

4 FINAL 2

Sabres BUF

Saturday, January 31, 2026 · 7:00 PM ET · KeyBank Center, Buffalo · TV SNE · NHLN · TVAS

Line score by period
Team	1	2	3	T	SOG
Canadiens	1	0	3	4	31
Sabres	0	2	0	2	38

Shot chart

Every shot attempt, computed from the league's play-by-play coordinates. Canadiens attack left, Sabres attack right, all periods folded onto one rink. Attempts are plotted where the league recorded them, so the 7 marks in a team's own end are attempts logged from there: empty-net shots, long dumps on the net; 1 empty-net goal is drawn as a diamond. Boxscore shots on goal: MTL 31, BUF 38.

MTL in red BUF in blue goal empty-net goal shot on goal missed blocked Canadiens 31 shots on goal (4 goals, 11 missed, 11 blocked) attacking left; Sabres 38 shots on goal (2 goals, 18 missed, 21 blocked) attacking right.

Shots by period

Shots on goal, goals and attempts by period
Period	MTL SOG	MTL G	MTL ATT	BUF SOG	BUF G	BUF ATT
1st	11	1	19	11	0	22
2nd	6	0	14	12	2	24
3rd	14	3	20	15	0	31
Total	31	4	53	38	2	77

Shots by situation

Shots on goal and goals by strength of the shooting team
Situation	MTL SOG	MTL G	BUF SOG	BUF G
Even strength	26	3	33	1
Power play	4	1	5	1
Short-handed	1	0	0	0
Into an empty net	1	1	0	0

Attempt share by period

Sabres took 59.2% of the shot attempts, and 61.4% of the 101 attempts taken at 5-on-5. An attempt is a goal, a shot on goal, a miss or a blocked shot; CF% is the share of them belonging to the Sabres and FF% their share of the ones that were not blocked, so the Canadiens hold the remainder. All situations unless the 5-on-5 figure is named. All 32 teams

Attempt share by period, all situations, Canadiens at Sabres
Period	BUF CF%	BUF FF%
1st	53.7	55.2
2nd	63.2	61.5
3rd	60.8	55.8
Game	59.2	57.1

Team totals only: per-player on-ice numbers need shift data, which this source does not publish.

Scoring summary

1st period

11:20 Juraj Slafkovský (21) PP Nick Suzuki (45), Cole Caufield (25) · wrist 1–0

2nd period

07:36 Owen Power (4) Tage Thompson (28), Rasmus Dahlin (33) · wrist 1–1
18:58 Noah Ostlund (10) PP Alex Tuch (25), Bowen Byram (17) · slap 1–2

3rd period

04:14 Cole Caufield (31) Noah Dobson (24), Lane Hutson (47) · tip-in 2–2
10:13 Cole Caufield (32) Nick Suzuki (46), Kirby Dach (4) · snap 3–2
19:12 Oliver Kapanen (17) EN Noah Dobson (25) · wrist 4–2

Three stars

Cole Caufield MTL · R #13 · 2 G, 1 A
Jakub Dobes MTL · G #75 · 0 GA, .947 SV%
Owen Power BUF · D #25 · 1 G, 0 A

Penalties

Penalties
Period	Time	Team	Player	Infraction	Min	Drawn by
1st	10:00	BUF	Tage Thompson	interference	2	Phillip Danault
1st	19:06	BUF	Bowen Byram	tripping	2	Nick Suzuki
2nd	00:58	MTL	Lane Hutson	tripping	2	Ryan McLeod
2nd	02:46	BUF	Ryan McLeod	hooking	2	Kaiden Guhle
2nd	14:21	MTL	Noah Dobson	high sticking	2	Jason Zucker
2nd	16:58	MTL	Lane Hutson	high sticking	2	Alex Tuch
3rd	16:24	MTL	Kirby Dach	holding	2	Bowen Byram

Boxscore

Montreal Canadiens

Canadiens skaters · by points
Player	Pos	G	A	PTS	+/-	SOG	HITS	BLK	PIM	FO%	TOI
Cole Caufield #13	R	2	1	3	+2	5	3	1	0	0.0	15:39
Nick Suzuki #14	C	0	2	2	+3	2	0	1	0	57.1	18:52
Noah Dobson #53	D	0	2	2	+3	4	2	2	2	0.0	20:32
Oliver Kapanen #91	C	1	0	1	+1	2	1	2	0	66.7	17:28
Juraj Slafkovský #20	L	1	0	1	+1	7	2	0	0	100.0	17:26
Kirby Dach #77	C	0	1	1	+2	1	2	1	2	0.0	12:29
Lane Hutson #48	D	0	1	1	+1	2	0	1	4	0.0	20:10
Jake Evans #71	C	0	0	0	-1	1	0	1	0	81.8	16:33
Joe Veleno #90	C	0	0	0	-1	0	2	1	0	50.0	10:33
Phillip Danault #24	C	0	0	0	0	1	1	1	0	78.6	18:13
Brendan Gallagher #11	R	0	0	0	0	0	5	0	0	0.0	10:18
Ivan Demidov #93	R	0	0	0	0	3	0	0	0	0.0	16:49
Josh Anderson #17	R	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	0	0.0	12:11
Zachary Bolduc #76	R	0	0	0	-1	0	1	0	0	0.0	10:10
Alexandre Carrier #45	D	0	0	0	-1	1	1	1	0	0.0	20:28
Arber Xhekaj #72	D	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	0	0.0	07:09
Kaiden Guhle #21	D	0	0	0	+2	0	3	4	0	0.0	19:29
Mike Matheson #8	D	0	0	0	-1	2	0	4	0	0.0	27:33

Canadiens goalies
Goalie	DEC	SA	SV	GA	SV%	EV	PP	TOI
Jakub Dobes #75	W	38	36	2	.947	32/33	4/5	59:58

Buffalo Sabres

Sabres skaters · by points
Player	Pos	G	A	PTS	+/-	SOG	HITS	BLK	PIM	FO%	TOI
Noah Ostlund #86	C	1	0	1	-2	1	0	0	0	50.0	13:18
Owen Power #25	D	1	0	1	0	6	0	2	0	0.0	24:00
Tage Thompson #72	C	0	1	1	+1	5	1	0	2	29.4	22:21
Alex Tuch #89	R	0	1	1	0	1	1	0	0	0.0	22:29
Bowen Byram #4	D	0	1	1	-2	1	0	1	2	0.0	20:19
Rasmus Dahlin #26	D	0	1	1	0	4	3	1	0	0.0	26:03
Konsta Helenius #94	C	0	0	0	-1	3	1	0	0	33.3	09:54
Peyton Krebs #19	C	0	0	0	-1	0	1	0	0	25.0	09:38
Ryan McLeod #71	C	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	2	31.6	17:38
Tyson Kozak #48	C	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	50.0	06:49
Beck Malenstyn #29	L	0	0	0	0	1	3	2	0	0.0	08:46
Jason Zucker #17	L	0	0	0	-1	4	2	0	0	0.0	18:40
Zach Benson #6	L	0	0	0	0	2	1	0	0	0.0	20:45
Jack Quinn #22	R	0	0	0	-1	3	0	0	0	0.0	17:28
Josh Doan #91	R	0	0	0	-1	3	4	0	0	0.0	17:22
Mattias Samuelsson #23	D	0	0	0	0	2	6	0	0	0.0	21:48
Michael Kesselring #8	D	0	0	0	-2	0	0	1	0	0.0	08:53
Zach Metsa #73	D	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.0	10:46

Sabres goalies
Goalie	DEC	SA	SV	GA	SV%	EV	PP	TOI
Alex Lyon #34	L	30	27	3	.900	23/25	3/4	57:43

SOG shots on goal · BLK blocked shots · FO% faceoff win percentage · EV / PP saves over shots by strength. Skaters sorted by points, then goals.

Source NHL (boxscore, play-by-play, game summary). Shot locations are the league's tracked coordinates; the chart and the situation tables are computed by Play-Pause Hockey. Data as of 2026-09-28.