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Flynn, Sabres drop Canadiens in SO for weekend sweep

Nov 30, 2014 - 8:22 AM Montreal, QC (SportsNetwork.com) - Brian Flynn tied the game late in the third period to force overtime and produced the lone goal of the shootout as the Buffalo Sabres finished off a home-and-home sweep of the Montreal Canadiens with a 4-3 victory on Saturday.

After each team's first four shootout participants were unsuccessful, Tomas Plekanec followed suit for Montreal as Jhonas Enroth calmly turned aside his offering with a stick save.

Flynn put an end to the skills competition with a shot into an open net off a slick backhand-forehand deke past a sliding Dustin Tokarski.

Zemgus Girgensons and Chris Stewart also scored in regulation for the Sabres, who defeated Montreal 2-1 on Friday. Enroth turned aside 41 shots and stopped five more in the shootout.

"Jhonas Enroth was great tonight. He made some timely stops," Flynn said. "If he saves five in a row, you need to win the game."

Brendan Gallagher, Max Pacioretty and Lars Eller all lit the lamp for Montreal, which has lost its last three games. Tokarski made 23 saves in defeat.

After Marcus Foligno blocked a shot in the defensive zone, Stewart gathered the puck, raced through the neutral zone, split a pair of defenders and finished off the sequence with a wrister over the shoulder of Tokarski for a 2-1 game 5:57 into the final stanza.

Less than two minutes later, Brandon Prust worked the puck behind the net and Eller emerged with it, sending a backhander off the skate of Buffalo defenseman Nikita Zadorov into the net for a tied game.

Pacioretty tapped in the rebound of Dale Weise's shot from the right side of the net to give Montreal a 3-2 lead with 6:45 left in the third. The lead was short-lived, however, as Flynn backhanded Torrey Mitchell's feed from behind the cage into the back of the net 49 seconds later.

Enroth made four saves and Tokarski stopped three pucks in the extra session.

Girgensons opened the scoring for Buffalo with 5:57 to play in the opening stanza. Nicolas Deslauriers sent a pass to Tyler Ennis, who tipped the puck in on net. Tokarski made the save, but Girgensons was parked in front to chip it over the Montreal netminder's shoulder and into the net.

Enroth made two big saves to keep Buffalo's lead intact early in the second. He dove across the crease to stop Andrei Markov's shot with his blocker and then a few minutes later, he denied David Desharnais off a 2-on-1.

Gallagher's shot clanged off the crossbar and hit the knob of Enroth's stick at the goal line before ricocheting out of the crease. The play was reviewed and determined to be a good goal at 7:51 of the second.

"On the ice, I just thought I had hit the post and next thing you know, they're reviewing it," said Gallagher. "The video replays showed it was in and I'll take it."

Game Notes

Gallagher's goal was the first even-strength goal allowed by Enroth in a span of 296 minutes, 26 seconds, dating back to Nov. 13 when Minnesota's Kyle Brodziak scored at 9:21 of the first period in the Wild's 6-3 win ... Gallagher signed a six-year, $22.5 million contract extension earlier on Saturday ... Sabres forward Tim Schaller played in his first NHL game, while Brian Gionta, who returned to the familiar confines of the Bell Centre for the first time since signing with Buffalo in the offseason, played in his 800th.