The Buffalo Sabres and Montreal Canadiens are set for a Game 7 showdown to settle their Eastern Conference second-round matchup on Monday night.
The Sabres scored seven unanswered goals in an 8-3 win in Game 6 on Saturday night in Montreal, forcing the deciding game back in Buffalo.
“It’s probably the worst game we’ve played, so we’re only going up,” Canadiens forward Nick Suzuki said. “It’s going to be important for guys to look at themselves in the mirror and say we’ve got an opportunity to win one game and advance to the third round. So, we’ll take that any time throughout the season.”
Montreal also needed seven games to decide its first-round matchup against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Canadiens missed a chance to clinch in Game 6 at home in that round, but went to the Sunshine State and pulled out a 2-1 victory.
“We’re a team that is really resilient,” Suzuki said. “We’ve been in this situation already in the first round, so we have experience. We just have to win one game. That’s the focus right now.”
Suzuki thinks the Canadiens may have put too much pressure on themselves to clinch at home, where thousands of fans surrounded their home arena hours before puck drop in hopes of celebrating victory.
“Maybe we wanted to try to do too much here to impress the fans and give them back some love,” Suzuki said. “Can’t just let that affect us mentally, and we’ve got to keep things simple and keep doing what makes us successful, regardless of where we’re playing.”
The winner of Game 7 will play the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference final beginning Thursday in Raleigh, N.C.
Carolina has been off since completing its sweep of the Philadelphia Flyers on May 9. The Hurricanes also swept the Ottawa Senators in the first round.
The Canadiens won all three games against Carolina during the regular season, while the Sabres lost two of three.
The Sabres have played in seven Game 7s in their franchise history. Their lone win came in overtime against the Ottawa Senators in the 1997 conference quarterfinals.
“It’s going to be awesome,” Buffalo forward Tage Thompson said of playing in his first Game 7 in the NHL. “It’s a new experience for a lot of guys in this room, and something you dream of growing up.
“We knew going into this series it was going to be a long one. They’re a good team, and I think it’s just something that gets you excited. It’s another game that we get to embrace. I think if you would have asked every guy in here in September if they would have taken being in Game 7 in round two, we all would have signed up for that, so we’re in a great spot.”
Thompson said the Sabres don’t need to do anything differently in the winner-take-all game, just focus on each shift and the task at hand. Same as they did in Game 6.
“We kept it simple,” Thompson said. “We didn’t mess around with the puck in areas where we’re going to give them any free offense, and guys competed and played hard. You do that, usually, you’re going to have success.”
