Playing shorthanded for more than half the game, the Sabers lost a back-and-forth battle to end their three-game losing streak. The game featured six lead changes, including a pair of one-goal leads for the Sabers in each of the second and third periods.

With Buffalo ahead 3-2 with less than a minute left in the second period, a pair of goals by Nick Suzuki put Montreal ahead. Suzuki’s first goal, scored at 46.9 seconds, was the result of a strange scrum. The next goal came 22 seconds later when Juraj Slafkovsky won the challenge for a loose puck down low, finding Suzuki with space to shoot in front of Luukkonen.

“The last two guys to finish the second period were obviously brutal,” Sabers alternate captain Alex Tuch said. “You can’t let that happen when you take the lead with a minute left in the period. Yeah, that’s just bad discipline.”

Ruff encouraged the Sabers to stick with it in the second half, assuring his players they would have the opportunity to get back into the game. That chance came with strong play from Rasmus Dahlin, who tied the score at 4-4 at 1:58 of the third quarter. JJ Peterka got behind the Montreal defense and scored a five-hole score to put the Sabers back in front less than two minutes later.

The Canadians again responded with two goals in quick succession. Emil Heineman made the score 5-5 with 7:02 left in the game with his shot through traffic. Just 25 seconds later, Dahlin was called for elbowing Canadiens forward Jake Evans as he prepared for an anticipated shot through the wall. This was the Sabers’ sixth minor penalty of the night.

“There’s a lot of punishment,” Dahlin said. “Especially my punishment. I take full ownership. This can’t happen.”

Cole Caufield scored the winning goal with 17 seconds left on the power play. Slafkovsky fired a carom shot over the goalpost on the right side of the goal and made quick progress in the blue paint to set up the goal and his third assist of the night.

Christian Dvorak added an empty-netter in the final minute to thwart the Sabers’ comeback attempt.

“I really think we will learn from this,” Dahlin said. “We were humiliated today. I think we were very excited about our previous matches, I don’t know. But we know that it is difficult to win in this league if you do not come out 100 percent. So we will work hard to move forward.”