Thursday, May 7, 2026

The Atlantic Division's top seed wasted no time asserting their dominance in the second round, as the Buffalo Sabres overwhelmed Jakub Dobes to take Game 1. Zach Benson was the offensive catalyst right out of the gate, setting up Josh Doan just under five minutes into the first period before assisting on Ryan McLeod's power-play marker midway through the opening frame. Montreal showed some life late in the first when Nick Suzuki buried a man-advantage chance, but the Sabres quickly snuffed out any momentum. Early in the second period, Jordan Greenway restored the two-goal cushion at even strength. Bowen Byram then delivered the backbreaker at 9:01, scoring Buffalo's second power-play goal of the night on just their sixteenth shot against a struggling Dobes. Kirby Dach gave the Canadiens a glimmer of hope late in the middle frame, but Alex Lyon was a wall in the third, finishing with 26 saves to secure the 4-2 victory. BUF leads 1-0 in the series, leaving Montreal desperate to find defensive answers before Game 2 stays in upstate New York.

Desperate to avoid a two-game hole, Lukas Dostal refused to let the Anaheim Ducks head home empty-handed. The young netminder was an absolute wall in Vegas, turning aside 21 of 22 shots to help Anaheim grind out a physical 3-1 victory and steal home-ice advantage. After Jack Eichel put his team in early trouble with a first-period high-sticking double-minor, the Golden Knights managed to keep things scoreless into the middle frame. Anaheim finally broke the deadlock midway through the second when Beckett Sennecke converted a passing sequence from Jeffrey Viel and Ryan Poehling. Early in the third, the Ducks tightened their grip. Leo Carlsson doubled the lead at 6:36 after connecting with Troy Terry and Chris Kreider to silence the Vegas crowd. Despite an aggressive pushback from the Golden Knights, Dostal had an answer for everything until the dying seconds. Jansen Harkins iced the game with an unassisted empty-netter late in the period, rendering Mark Stone's power-play goal with six seconds remaining purely cosmetic. With the Series tied 1-1, these heavy-hitting rivals now head to Southern California for a pivotal Game 3.