Primeau makes career-high 46 saves, Canadiens defeat Sabres in shootout

BUFFALO -- Cayden Primeau made an NHL career-high 46 saves, and the Montreal Canadiens recovered for a 3-2 shootout win against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center on Saturday.

“It’s a big game for him,” Montreal coach Martin St. Louis said. “I know he wasn’t happy with his last game (a 5-1 loss against the Florida Panthers on Nov. 30). It’s not a bounce back, it’s a bounce forward. I think he went farther than where he was before his bad game.”

Juraj Slafkovsky scored the deciding goal in the shootout, and Jayden Struble and Nick Suzuki scored in regulation for the Canadiens (12-12-3), who led 2-0 entering the third period.

“A lot of ups and downs, and that's going to happen in a game,” Suzuki said. “I liked our fight after we gave up those two goals and just stuck with it. I felt like we knew we were going to win that game, just a matter of when, and went all the way to the shootout. So, it's a big win for us.”

Jeff Skinner scored, and Devon Levi made 29 saves for Buffalo (11-14-3), which hasn’t won consecutive games since Oct. 29-Nov. 1.

“It hurts not to get the win, but I think that we can agree that the last two games (also a 3-1 win against the Boston Bruins on Thursday) have looked a little bit different than the previous 25 or whatever we played,” Sabres captain Kyle Okposo said. “It’s more how we want to play, and I think if we keep doing that on a nightly basis, we’re going to put ourselves in a pretty good spot.”

Montreal scored 14 seconds apart in the second period after Sabres forward Eric Robinson was assessed a major penalty and game misconduct for boarding.

Struble scored his first NHL goal to give Montreal a 1-0 lead at 12:59, redirecting Johnathan Kovacevic’s shot pass past Levi off a rush during a 4-on-4. The Canadiens defenseman was teammates with Levi for three seasons at Northeastern University.

“I’m definitely going to send him a text and just say, ‘Good game and thanks, bro,’” Struble said. “I was talking to him before the game and was like, ‘Hey, let me get my first,’ and he’s like, ‘No chance.’ It feels good, yeah, for sure.”

Suzuki made it 2-0 at 13:13 when he carried the puck into the offensive zone and scored with a wrist shot from the high slot on the power play.

“I don’t think we ever panicked,” Okposo said. “It was 2-0, there was no hanging heads. It was just, we’ve worn on them for two periods and they’re going to crack. … We know that if we could play like that, it’s going to wear on teams, and tonight, I thought in the third period that’s where it showed.”

Skinner cut it to 2-1 at 1:06 of the third period when he received a pass in the skates from Tage Thompson and kicked the puck to his stick before shooting past Primeau in the slot.

Okposo then tied it 2-2 at 6:36 on a rebound.

“We need lots more aggressive traits based on our recent play,” Sabres coach Don Granato said. “So, the process was much, much better and the process was consistent with compete and battle through most of the game. We generated chances through that, but the result is frustrating.”

NOTES: Canadiens forward Tanner Pearson left the game after the first period with an upper-body injury. There was no update after the game. … Okposo’s goal was his 600th NHL point. … Skinner has 25 points (14 goals, 11 assists) in his past 15 games against the Canadiens.