Canadiens 4–3 Sabres: Bolduc settled a shootout after Buffalo's fast comeback

Montreal beat Buffalo 4–3 in a shootout at Bell Centre on 13 October 2026, after the Sabres erased a 3–1 deficit with two goals in 61 seconds early in the third period. Zachary Bolduc supplied the deciding shootout goal. The verified match page records the final; the 4–3 notation includes the shootout decision, not a fourth Montreal goal in ordinary play.

Cover image: illustrative archival photograph of a Canadiens game at Bell Centre on 25 March 2008, not this Sabres–Canadiens match. Photo by spcbrass / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0; image shown without editorial alterations.

A 3–1 lead was not enough to close the contest

Buffalo's Olen Zellweger scored first, 2:16 into the opening period. Montreal answered through a Lane Hutson power-play goal at 14:28, then moved ahead when Cole Caufield scored 1:19 into the second. Josh Anderson made it 3–1 with 50 seconds left before the second intermission. Hutson's goal was his first of the season, according to the Canadiens' official recap. Those three scorers gave Montreal different routes onto the board, but the two-goal cushion did not survive the next period.

Josh Norris cut the deficit to one at 4:24 of the third, and Zellweger scored his second of the night at 5:25. The interval between those goals was 61 seconds. The speed matters as much as the arithmetic: Montreal went from having room for a mistake to protecting a tie almost immediately. Zellweger's first goal had opened the game, and his second completed Buffalo's recovery. It was the first two-goal game of his NHL career, the league's official recap reported.

The shot count tells a different story from the comeback

Buffalo's third-period surge was real, but it should not be mistaken for control of the full game. The NHL box score lists 38 Montreal shots on goal and 17 for Buffalo. The Canadiens outshot the Sabres in every regulation period and 5–0 in overtime. Buffalo managed only two shots in the second period, yet finished that period within two goals because its early lead had held Montreal level for much of the first.

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen kept Buffalo close with 35 saves on 38 shots. Jacob Fowler made 14 saves for Montreal. Those figures explain why the losing side could come within a shootout of taking the game even while producing less than half its opponent's shot total. They do not mean Buffalo's comeback was accidental: Norris and Zellweger converted two genuine opportunities at the point when Montreal most needed to stop the swing. But they do limit any claim that the Sabres had the better overall chance of winning from the run of play.

Montreal recovered once the game became a skills contest

Neither team scored in overtime. In the shootout, Caufield and Alexandre Texier scored on Montreal's first two attempts, and Bolduc converted the third. Tage Thompson scored for Buffalo, but Jack Quinn did not. The deciding goal was Bolduc's second straight shootout winner, following Montreal's previous game against Detroit. That sequence shows composure in the tiebreaker; it should not be confused with proof that the Canadiens had solved the defensive lapse that surrendered their third-period lead.

The counterargument to calling this a narrow escape is Montreal's territorial edge. Thirty-eight shots to 17 is a substantial difference, and the Canadiens created five more attempts on goal in overtime when Buffalo recorded none. Yet the scoreboard at the end of regulation remained 3–3, which is why the late Buffalo goals cannot be dismissed as a footnote. Montreal had to win the match a second way after its two-goal lead disappeared.

For a reader who only sees the final score, the key distinction is simple: this was a shootout win after a 3–3 tie through 65 minutes, not a routine 4–3 finish. Montreal generated the larger volume and all three successful shootout attempts; Buffalo showed how quickly a game can turn with two finishes a minute apart. The Canadiens kept the points, but the route to them was much less secure than their 3–1 second-intermission lead suggested. The fixture calendar carries the confirmed next meetings rather than treating this result as a prediction of their season series.