Canadiens regain top spot in NHL East
Higgins fires overtime winner, Plekanec scores twice against Sabres
Last Updated: Saturday, March 29, 2008 | 3:49 AM ET
CBC Sports
Montreal Canadiens centre Tomas Plekanec continued his torrid play on the road Friday night, while Buffalo found another way to blow a chance at two points in its quest for a playoff berth.
Plekanec scored twice in the final three minutes of regulation to force overtime and then watched Chris Higgins fire the game-winning goal in a 4-3 decision against the Sabres.
Canadiens goalie Carey Price makes a save on Buffalo's Jochen Hecht.
(Don Heupel/Associated Press)
Plekanec now has eight goals and 11 points in his last seven road games and 68 points in 77 contests overall this season.
"We showed character," said Plekanec. "We have to be ready for situations like that in the playoffs. It teaches us yet again that you can't give up and
you play the full 60."
If only the Sabres had played a full 60 minutes.
"We played well for 57 minutes and then we got nervous with the puck," said Sabres forward Derek Roy. "I don't know if it's the sign of a young team, but we have to play with confidence the whole game."
Buffalo, which blew a 3-1 lead to Ottawa on Tuesday, picked up one point on idle Boston but trails the eighth-place Bruins by four points for the final playoff spot with four games remaining.
Two of the Sabres' final four regular-season games come against the Bruins.
"We're just going to stay in the battle," said Sabres coach Lindy Ruff. "Stranger things have happened. We're going to fight right down to the last minute of the last game."
Mark Streit assisted on the final three goals while Alex Kovalev also scored to help the Canadiens regain top spot in the NHL's Eastern Conference with a 44-24-10 record for 98 points. The Pittsburgh Penguins (45-26-7) are next with 97 points.
"We showed by our comeback earlier in the year against the [New York] Rangers [erasing a 5-0 deficit] that we can do it," said Kovalev. "We got confidence from that game. Anything is possible."
Drew Stafford, Nathan Paetsch and Daniel Paille scored for the Sabres, who left the ice in disbelief.
Stafford opened the scoring 2:25 into the second period, knocking in the rebound of Roy's shot from the slot. That woke up a nervous HSBC Arena crowd of 18,690 that's hoping against hope for its team to sneak into the playoffs.
It should have been 2-0 Sabres with 2:16 left in the middle period but Montreal goalie Carey Price absolutely robbed a sure goal from Paul Gaustad with a lightning pad save.
The Canadiens tied the game 1-1 moments later, with 36.4 seconds remaining, when Kovalev took a give-and-go pass from Mikhail Grabovski and sent a knuckler past Ryan Miller's outstretched glove.
Montreal was lucky to be even on the scoreboard after being outshot 27-13 through 40 minutes — the Sabres using five power plays to the Canadiens' one to rack up the shots totals.
The third period brought some more entertaining hockey, Higgins
sent in alone from centre ice and stopped not once but twice on the
rebound as the Canadiens began to apply pressure.
Montreal salvaged a game they had no business being in, first cutting the Buffalo lead to 3-2 with a power-play goal 2:31 from the end of the third, Streit's point shot deftly deflected by Plekanec past the glove of Miller.
With Price on the bench for an extra attacker, Plekanec then backhanded a rebound past Miller with only 14.6 seconds left, Sabres fans in disbelief as the game was sent to overtime. There, Streit set up Higgins in front of the net for the tip-in winner, hundreds of Canadiens fans in the building voicing their delirious approval.
"Luckily we played three good minutes to win the game," said Montreal bench boss coach Guy Carbonneau.
The Canadiens face the eliminated Maple Leafs in Toronto on Saturday (CBC, 7 p.m. ET).
with files from the Canadian Press
