BUFFALO — One look at the scoresheet revealed why the Montreal Canadiens broke their six-loss streak and picked up their first win in November.

Josh Anderson, Christian Dvorak, Brendan Gallagher, Emil Heineman and Joel Armia also scored points, but the Canadiens’ 7-5 victory over the Buffalo Sabers was driven by their best players.

We wrote that they were the worst They lost 4-1 to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday, but managed to bounce back in Monday’s matinee; not just by finding the back of the net to recover from individual collapses, but also by doing so in key moments.

“Our best players played gameCanadiens coach Martin St. Louis later told reporters at Key Bank Center.

No questions were asked about No. 1 goaltender Samuel Montembeault, who relieved Cayden Primeau after the Canadiens turned a 4-3 lead into a 5-4 lead in the third period.

Montembeault made timely saves to keep his team within reach before Hutson did most of the dirty work to extend the game in the Sabers zone and set up Heineman for the tying goal with 9:09 left in the game.

Slafkovsky and Caufield then connected on the winner with 17 seconds left after Rasmus Dahlin elbowed Jake Evans.

As the Sabers tried to tie the game with an extra offensive player on the ice, Suzuki and the Canadiens took the pressure off by disrupting the game at home. He may have lost his footing on the ice and missed his first NHL hat-trick, but he still made the key play on Dvorak’s goal to secure the win.

“This is a big building block for our team moving forward,” Caufield said.

We’ll find out if that’s true after the Canadiens score a two-up lead within seconds of notching it and scoring a third at the start of the final period.

It will take more than just rebounding to finish this game to show that the fragility of gaffe-filled losses has been repaired.

But there’s no denying what Monday’s performance should do for the confidence of the players who are counted on to lead Montreal to better results than they’ve achieved so far this season.

Suzuki’s confidence had been shaken after he went four games without scoring a point, as he had just one field goal in each of those losses and made uncharacteristic mistakes to score multiple goals.

Caufield’s confidence wasn’t exactly growing over the same period and Dach’s confidence appeared to have hit rock bottom after failing to get on the scoresheet throughout the entire losing streak.

Matheson, who is dealing with an upper-body injury, was further insulted by having gone scoreless in five games before Monday and finding himself on the ice for eight more goals than the Canadiens had scored at even strength.

Slafkovsky was insulting himself before the Canadiens lost to the Calgary Flames, New Jersey Devils and Leafs last week.

“There’s so much I could tell you about myself that I’m not doing right right now,” he told us last Monday before continuing to do it wrong over the next three games.

But Slafkovsky did some basic things against the Sabers; that is, keeping his feet moving and not letting the puck die on his stick.

All the preparations of the 20-year-old player were a function of this and enabled him to make a significant contribution to this victory.

All of Montreal’s best players gave their team a much-needed boost.

St. “It was like the kids were saying, ‘Enough is enough,'” Louis said.

Anything more would be unbearable for them.

The atmosphere was particularly thick around the Canadiens following Saturday’s game.

Judging by the way Monday’s game went, it probably wasn’t until Dvorak gave the team a two-goal lead with 49 seconds left.

Now the Canadiens’ best players should be feeling a little better, which is crucial ahead of Thursday’s game against a Minnesota Wild team that has the NHL’s third-best record (10-2-3).

“Hopefully we can make some progress,” Dach said.

There’s no time like the present in 5-9-2.