Game

Canadiens at Sabres

Sabres 4, Canadiens 2 · first star Zach Benson (0 G, 2 A).

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

Montreal Canadiens 2 at Buffalo Sabres 4

Canadiens MTL

2 FINAL 4

Sabres BUF

Playoffs Wednesday, May 6, 2026 · 7:00 PM ET · KeyBank Center, Buffalo · TV TNT · truTV · HBO MAX

Line score by period
Team	1	2	3	T	SOG
Canadiens	1	1	0	2	28
Sabres	2	2	0	4	16

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 3 marks in a team's own end are attempts logged from there: empty-net shots, long dumps on the net. Boxscore shots on goal: MTL 28, BUF 16.

MTL in red BUF in blue goal shot on goal missed blocked Canadiens 28 shots on goal (2 goals, 12 missed, 13 blocked) attacking left; Sabres 16 shots on goal (4 goals, 15 missed, 15 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	9	1	17	6	2	16
2nd	8	1	14	9	2	20
3rd	11	0	22	1	0	10
Total	28	2	53	16	4	46

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	23	1	11	2
Power play	3	1	5	2
Short-handed	2	0	0	0

Attempt share by period

Canadiens took 53.5% of the shot attempts, and 49.3% of the 75 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	48.5	40.9
2nd	58.8	61.5
3rd	31.3	26.1
Game	46.5	43.7

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

Scoring summary

1st period

04:31 Josh Doan (2) Zach Benson (2) · snap 0–1
13:26 Ryan McLeod (1) PP Zach Benson (3), Josh Doan (3) · snap 0–2
19:16 Nick Suzuki (2) PP Juraj Slafkovský (1), Ivan Demidov (2) · snap 1–2

2nd period

03:32 Jordan Greenway (1) Mattias Samuelsson (1) · wrist 1–3
09:01 Bowen Byram (4) PP Ryan McLeod (2) · snap 1–4
16:31 Kirby Dach (3) Zachary Bolduc (4) · wrist 2–4

Three stars

Zach Benson BUF · L #6 · 0 G, 2 A
Ryan McLeod BUF · C #71 · 1 G, 1 A
Jordan Greenway BUF · L #12 · 1 G, 0 A

Penalties

Penalties
Period	Time	Team	Player	Infraction	Min	Drawn by
1st	00:30	MTL	Lane Hutson	tripping	2	Zach Benson
1st	11:35	MTL	Nick Suzuki	tripping	2	Bowen Byram
1st	17:58	BUF	Rasmus Dahlin	interference	2	Jake Evans
2nd	07:13	MTL	Kaiden Guhle	cross checking	2	Tyson Kozak
2nd	09:11	BUF	Beck Malenstyn	high sticking	2	Lane Hutson

Boxscore

Montreal Canadiens

Canadiens skaters · by points
Player	Pos	G	A	PTS	+/-	SOG	HITS	BLK	PIM	FO%	TOI
Kirby Dach #77	C	1	0	1	0	1	2	0	0	0.0	09:46
Nick Suzuki #14	C	1	0	1	-1	3	2	0	2	55.6	21:02
Juraj Slafkovský #20	L	0	1	1	-1	4	1	0	0	0.0	19:41
Ivan Demidov #93	R	0	1	1	0	2	1	0	0	0.0	18:19
Zachary Bolduc #76	R	0	1	1	0	0	5	0	0	0.0	08:53
Alex Newhook #15	C	0	0	0	0	4	3	0	0	33.3	16:52
Jake Evans #71	C	0	0	0	0	2	1	1	0	69.2	15:49
Joe Veleno #90	C	0	0	0	0	1	5	0	0	100.0	08:33
Phillip Danault #24	C	0	0	0	0	1	3	0	0	69.2	15:20
Alexandre Texier #85	L	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	100.0	11:44
Cole Caufield #13	R	0	0	0	-1	2	1	0	0	0.0	19:08
Josh Anderson #17	R	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0.0	15:46
Alexandre Carrier #45	D	0	0	0	-1	0	0	0	0	0.0	18:45
Arber Xhekaj #72	D	0	0	0	0	0	3	1	0	0.0	07:42
Kaiden Guhle #21	D	0	0	0	0	0	2	3	2	0.0	18:22
Lane Hutson #48	D	0	0	0	0	4	0	2	2	0.0	26:42
Mike Matheson #8	D	0	0	0	-1	1	0	3	0	0.0	21:00
Noah Dobson #53	D	0	0	0	0	2	0	2	0	0.0	24:09

Canadiens goalies
Goalie	DEC	SA	SV	GA	SV%	EV	PP	TOI
Jakub Dobes #75	L	16	12	4	.750	9/11	3/5	56:48

Buffalo Sabres

Sabres skaters · by points
Player	Pos	G	A	PTS	+/-	SOG	HITS	BLK	PIM	FO%	TOI
Ryan McLeod #71	C	1	1	2	0	2	0	0	0	33.3	14:33
Josh Doan #91	R	1	1	2	+1	3	2	0	0	0.0	17:26
Zach Benson #6	L	0	2	2	+1	1	2	0	0	0.0	16:56
Jordan Greenway #12	L	1	0	1	+1	1	5	0	0	50.0	13:03
Bowen Byram #4	D	1	0	1	+1	2	1	0	0	0.0	21:13
Mattias Samuelsson #23	D	0	1	1	+1	0	2	0	0	0.0	21:35
Josh Norris #9	C	0	0	0	+1	0	3	0	0	61.1	17:08
Peyton Krebs #19	C	0	0	0	-1	0	4	0	0	28.6	14:02
Tage Thompson #72	C	0	0	0	-1	0	1	0	0	12.5	18:28
Tyson Kozak #48	C	0	0	0	+1	1	0	0	0	20.0	10:56
Beck Malenstyn #29	L	0	0	0	+1	0	5	1	2	0.0	10:36
Jason Zucker #17	L	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0.0	14:15
Alex Tuch #89	R	0	0	0	-1	1	0	1	0	0.0	19:16
Jack Quinn #22	R	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0.0	15:19
Conor Timmins #21	D	0	0	0	-1	0	0	3	0	0.0	19:39
Logan Stanley #64	D	0	0	0	0	0	2	2	0	0.0	12:52
Owen Power #25	D	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0.0	18:41
Rasmus Dahlin #26	D	0	0	0	+1	4	0	3	2	0.0	21:04

Sabres goalies
Goalie	DEC	SA	SV	GA	SV%	EV	PP	TOI
Alex Lyon #34	W	28	26	2	.929	22/23	2/3	59:40

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.