Game

Canadiens at Sabres

Canadiens 5, Sabres 1 · first star Alex Newhook (2 G, 0 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 5 at Buffalo Sabres 1

Canadiens MTL

5 FINAL 1

Sabres BUF

Playoffs Friday, May 8, 2026 · 7:00 PM ET · KeyBank Center, Buffalo · TV TNT · HBO MAX · CBC

Line score by period
Team	1	2	3	T	SOG
Canadiens	2	1	2	5	28
Sabres	0	1	0	1	29

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 2 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 28, BUF 29.

MTL in red BUF in blue goal empty-net goal shot on goal missed blocked Canadiens 28 shots on goal (5 goals, 17 missed, 12 blocked) attacking left; Sabres 29 shots on goal (1 goal, 15 missed, 20 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	13	2	25	8	0	17
2nd	8	1	18	11	1	21
3rd	7	2	14	10	0	26
Total	28	5	57	29	1	64

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	19	5	19	1
Power play	7	0	10	0
Short-handed	2	0	0	0
Into an empty net	1	1	0	0

Attempt share by period

Sabres took 52.9% of the shot attempts, and 55.7% of the 79 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	40.5	39.4
2nd	53.9	53.6
3rd	65.0	57.1
Game	52.9	49.4

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

Scoring summary

1st period

01:36 Alex Newhook (2) Kaiden Guhle (5), Lane Hutson (5) · tip-in 1–0
04:27 Mike Matheson (1) Phillip Danault (2) · snap 2–0

2nd period

04:47 Alex Newhook (3) Jake Evans (2), Noah Dobson (1) · snap 3–0
19:22 Zach Benson (3) Conor Timmins (1), Josh Doan (4) · tip-in 3–1

3rd period

03:54 Alexandre Carrier (1) Unassisted · snap 4–1
15:59 Nick Suzuki (3) EN Josh Anderson (2) · snap 5–1

Three stars

Alex Newhook MTL · C #15 · 2 G, 0 A
Jakub Dobes MTL · G #75 · 0 GA, .966 SV%
Zach Benson BUF · L #6 · 1 G, 0 A

Penalties

Penalties
Period	Time	Team	Player	Infraction	Min	Drawn by
1st	07:34	MTL	Alexandre Carrier	tripping	2	Jason Zucker
1st	11:47	BUF	Rasmus Dahlin	interference	2	Lane Hutson
1st	19:50	BUF	Josh Doan	interference	2	Noah Dobson
2nd	02:43	MTL	Alexandre Carrier	hooking	2	Tage Thompson
2nd	05:33	MTL	Arber Xhekaj	slashing	2	Jordan Greenway
2nd	09:36	BUF	Mattias Samuelsson	tripping	2	Nick Suzuki
2nd	14:38	MTL	Bench	too many men on the ice	2	—
2nd	17:04	MTL	Kaiden Guhle	roughing	2	Logan Stanley
2nd	17:04	BUF	Logan Stanley	roughing	2	Kaiden Guhle
3rd	13:08	BUF	Bowen Byram	elbowing	2	Zachary Bolduc
3rd	17:18	MTL	Josh Anderson	cross checking	2	Jordan Greenway
3rd	17:18	MTL	Josh Anderson	misconduct (misconduct)	10	—
3rd	18:34	BUF	Zach Benson	cross checking	2	Mike Matheson

Boxscore

Montreal Canadiens

Canadiens skaters · by points
Player	Pos	G	A	PTS	+/-	SOG	HITS	BLK	PIM	FO%	TOI
Alex Newhook #15	C	2	0	2	+2	4	0	1	0	25.0	16:46
Nick Suzuki #14	C	1	0	1	0	4	1	0	0	56.2	20:03
Alexandre Carrier #45	D	1	0	1	+4	1	2	1	4	0.0	19:38
Mike Matheson #8	D	1	0	1	+3	3	1	3	0	0.0	26:44
Jake Evans #71	C	0	1	1	+2	2	0	0	0	63.6	16:32
Phillip Danault #24	C	0	1	1	+3	0	2	2	0	66.7	14:33
Josh Anderson #17	R	0	1	1	+2	0	1	0	12	0.0	14:29
Kaiden Guhle #21	D	0	1	1	0	1	2	2	2	0.0	20:56
Lane Hutson #48	D	0	1	1	+1	3	0	1	0	0.0	20:54
Noah Dobson #53	D	0	1	1	-1	5	1	5	0	0.0	16:20
Joe Veleno #90	C	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	50.0	10:32
Kirby Dach #77	C	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.0	11:18
Alexandre Texier #85	L	0	0	0	+2	0	1	0	0	0.0	09:21
Juraj Slafkovský #20	L	0	0	0	0	1	1	2	0	0.0	17:56
Cole Caufield #13	R	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0.0	17:06
Ivan Demidov #93	R	0	0	0	+1	0	1	1	0	0.0	13:18
Zachary Bolduc #76	R	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0.0	12:02
Arber Xhekaj #72	D	0	0	0	+1	0	3	0	2	0.0	09:32

Canadiens goalies
Goalie	DEC	SA	SV	GA	SV%	EV	PP	TOI
Jakub Dobes #75	W	29	28	1	.966	18/19	10/10	60:00

Buffalo Sabres

Sabres skaters · by points
Player	Pos	G	A	PTS	+/-	SOG	HITS	BLK	PIM	FO%	TOI
Zach Benson #6	L	1	0	1	0	1	4	0	2	0.0	19:25
Josh Doan #91	R	0	1	1	0	4	2	0	2	100.0	16:28
Conor Timmins #21	D	0	1	1	0	0	1	4	0	0.0	18:08
Josh Norris #9	C	0	0	0	-1	3	4	0	0	41.7	17:39
Peyton Krebs #19	C	0	0	0	-1	1	4	1	0	75.0	12:25
Ryan McLeod #71	C	0	0	0	-2	2	0	0	0	26.7	17:17
Tage Thompson #72	C	0	0	0	-4	1	6	0	0	50.0	18:38
Tyson Kozak #48	C	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	45.5	10:02
Beck Malenstyn #29	L	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.0	07:11
Jason Zucker #17	L	0	0	0	-2	2	1	0	0	0.0	11:08
Jordan Greenway #12	L	0	0	0	0	1	2	0	0	100.0	12:55
Alex Tuch #89	R	0	0	0	-3	6	2	1	0	0.0	20:19
Jack Quinn #22	R	0	0	0	-1	0	1	1	0	0.0	14:30
Bowen Byram #4	D	0	0	0	-3	1	2	0	2	0.0	21:27
Logan Stanley #64	D	0	0	0	-1	1	2	0	2	0.0	10:27
Mattias Samuelsson #23	D	0	0	0	0	0	10	3	2	0.0	19:47
Owen Power #25	D	0	0	0	-2	0	2	1	0	0.0	20:18
Rasmus Dahlin #26	D	0	0	0	-1	5	1	0	2	0.0	22:17

Sabres goalies
Goalie	DEC	SA	SV	GA	SV%	EV	PP	TOI
Alex Lyon #34	L	27	23	4	.852	14/18	7/7	58:13

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.