Canadiens Best Lightning 2–1 in Game 7, Advance to Round 2 With Sabres on Wednesday

The 50-plus-year rivalry of the Buffalo Sabres and Montreal Canadiens continues in Buffalo on Wednesday.

It’s only fitting that these two teams are meeting in Round 2 of the NHL’s Stanley Cup postseason. Both are situated in the Eastern Conference’s Atlantic Division. When the regular season came to a close last month, it was Buffalo finishing in first place with 109 points. The bigger picture for hockey in Western New York is the Sabres returning to a postseason place after 14 years of not qualifying. Montreal pulled up in third position in the Atlantic with 106 points. After being bounced in Round 1 in 2025 by the Washington Capitals, and missing out on postseason participation the previous three seasons, grinding out an opening round series in Tampa Bay, Florida, on Sunday made for a sweet flight home to Quebec.

Canadiens rookie goaltender Jakub Dobes, who made 28 saves in Game 7 at Tampa Bay’s Benchmark International Arena, told The Athletic after Sunday’s game how proud he was to come out on the winning end in dueling Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy.

“We got to keep going. We can’t be satisfied. I’ve been dreaming of this. I was the luckier guy. Really proud of myself. I got to stay humble and go to Buffalo and repeat the same thing.”

The Sabres dismissed the Boston Bruins in Round 1, 4-games-to-two. While it took the Canadiens an extra game to send Tampa Bay home for the summer, there are little secrets between these two teams. With Montreal winning 2–1 on Sunday, thanks to Alex Newhook’s go-ahead goal at 11:07 in the third period, Buffalo will host Game 1 of the series at KeyBank Center on May 6, at 7 p.m. EDT. The Sabres will host Games 1, 2, 5, and 7, while the Canadiens will host Games 3, 4, and 6.

In speaking with NHL.com on Sunday from a jubilant Canadiens’ locker room, Newhook is enjoying seeing his team on a winning streak.

“I think it’s a big moment,” Newhook said. “Young group, young team, so to rise to the occasion in a big game like this just shows what we’re capable of and we’re a hard team to beat where we’re at right now.”

The similarities between the Sabres and Canadiens are stark.  Of the four games skated opposite each other during the 2025–2026 season, Buffalo and Montreal split the four games played—2 wins and two losses, with 13 goals being scored in total. These two teams have been battling it out since the 1970–1971 NHL season; Buffalo’s inaugural campaign. Heck, even their home arenas—Bell Centre in Montreal and Buffalo’s KeyBank Center—were christened in 1996 for hockey competition.

Of the seven games between Tampa and Montreal, four went into overtime, and each game of the series was decided by one goal. An equally closely fought matchup between the Sabres and Canadiens is anticipated in the upcoming series.

Lightning’s Brandon Hagel explained to NHL.com on Sunday after Montreal’s victory how important playing at home is.

“Can’t say much about the game tonight. You’re going to win 99 percent of those games,” Lightning forward Brandon Hagel said. “But at the end of the day, if you lose three games at home, you’re probably not going to win the series.”

It’s been three months since Montreal and Buffalo last tangled in Bell Centre.  Much of Montreal’s success this season is attributed to coaching, led by Martin St. Louis. Now in his fifth year behind the Canadiens’ bench, St. Louis took over the team in February 2022, after Dominque Ducharme was fired by Montreal, one of the NHL’s Original Six franchises. The coach understands the importance of Canadiens hockey throughout Quebec. Originally from Laval, Quebec, St. Louis knows how much the fan base wants a 25th Stanley Cup presentation for the franchise by NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. The Canadiens are to the NHL and particularly to Quebec, what the MLB New York Yankees are to the Empire State, and New York’s 20 million residents in the metropolitan region.

In Sunday’s Tampa Bay–Montreal game, in the first period, Nick Suzuki put up the first goal at 18:39, assisted by Kaiden Guhle and Josh Anderson. Tampa Bay evened the score in the second period at 13:27, when Dominic James found the back of  Montreal’s net with his shot on goal. Gage Goncalves and Charle-Edouard D’Astous assisted on James’s score.

In Tampa Bay on Sunday, Montreal went nearly 27 minutes without a shot on goal, including all of the second period.

The Sabres haven’t won a Stanley Cup championship in their franchise’s history, and the Canadiens last won the Cup in 1993.