MONTREAL, QC — The Sabres played their first game of the new year on the road Thursday night at the Bell Centre against the Montreal Canadiens.
Buffalo went into Thursday night's game with two wins in their last five games. Looking to turn things around, the Sabres team were hopeful that goaltender Devon Levi making his hometown debut would help light a fire to the team. And that it did.
The Sabres posted a dominant performance in Montreal, grabbing a 6-1 win over the Canadiens.
Casey Mittlestadt opened the scoring in the second period on the power play with a nice pass from Jeff Skinner, who was assisted by recently announced 2024 NHL All-Star Rasmus Dahlin.
Then Skinner tallied another powerplay goal just one minute and 26 seconds after Buffalo notched their first.
Montreal answered right back though, as former Sabre Joel Armia scored the Canadiens' only goal of the game to close out the second period.
The Sabres rounded out the game with four unanswered goals. Jack Quinn earned his fourth goal in seven games to start the third period. Tage Thompson followed with two goals, and Dahlin tallied an empty-netter to seal the deal.
Montreal native Devon Levi finished a .970 save percentage, stopping 32 of 33 shots in his 17th game played this season.
Buffalo will finish their three-game road trip on Saturday as they travel to Pittsburgh to face the Penguins at 7 p.m.