Sabres 6, Canadiens 4
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Left winger Marcus Foligno had two goals and an assist to lead the Buffalo Sabres to a 6-4 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Friday night.
Center David Legwand, left winger Evander Kane and defenseman Josh Gorges also scored for the Sabres and goalie Chad Johnson made 26 saves.
Center Alex Galchenyuk and right winger Sven Andrighetto each scored twice for the Canadiens. Goalie Mike Condon made 11 saves and allowed two goals after replacing Ben Scrivens early in the second period.
It was a wild, back-and-forth affair that featured plenty of offense and questionable defense on both ends. The Sabres jumped out to a 4-1 lead before the Canadiens cut the lead to 4-3 in the second period. Foligno's second goal of the evening -- on a penalty shot late in the second -- proved to be the winner.
Andrighetto opened the scoring with a hard slap shot off the post and in 3:44 into the game.
Legwand evened the score on a partial breakaway with 7:10 remaining in the first. It was his first goal since Nov. 23.
Kane gave Buffalo a 2-1 lead just before the end of the first following a tic-tac-toe passing play by center Ryan O'Reilly and right winger Marcus Foligno. After O'Reilly forced a turnover in the Montreal end, Kane made a quick move to his left before beating Scrivens with a shot to the blocker side.
Gorges made it 3-1 1:28 into the second after burying his own rebound. It was his second goal of the season.
The Canadiens pulled Scrivens after Gorges' goal, but the struggles in net continued. Foligno made 4-1 just 50 seconds later off a deflection from close range.
Then it was Buffalo's turn for struggles between the pipes as the Canadiens staged a comeback. Galchenyuk made it 4-2 with a hard one-timer on a 4-on-3 opportunity 4:47 into the second.
Andrighetto cut Buffalo's lead to 4-3 with his second of the night two minutes later following a terrible giveaway by Johnson. The Sabres goalie inadvertently passed the puck directly to Andrighetto on a clearing attempt, and Andrighetto put the puck in the open net at 6:48.
Foligno made it 5-3 on a penalty shot with 2:19 remaining in the second after being obstructed on a breakaway by Galchenyuk. Foligno buried his penalty shot by launching a wrist shot into the top corner of the net for his second of the evening.
Galchenyuk made up for his mistake two minutes later with his second goal of the night. Like his earlier goal, Galchenyuk ripped a slap shot from the right circle on the power play to make it 5-4 with 22 seconds left in the second.
It wasn't enough, though -- the Canadiens dominated possession in the Buffalo end in the third period but were unable to come up with an equalizer.
Kane scored an empty-net goal with 54.7 seconds left to make it 6-4.
NOTES: LW Johan Larsson, D Mark Pysyk and D Mike Weber were scratched for the Sabres. D Nathan Beaulieu and LW Jacob De La Rose were scratched for the Canadiens. ... Sabres rookie Dan Catenacci was placed on injured reserve earlier Friday after taking a hit to the head in Thursday's loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. The Sabres recalled C Philip Varone from the AHL's Rochester Americans to fill the open roster spot. At the time of his promotion, Varone was tied for the Americans' lead in points with 26 (12 goals, 14 assists). ... This was the third of five meetings between the teams this season. The next meeting takes place March 10 in Montreal.