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Montreal rallies to beat struggling Sabres

Nov 6, 2010 - 3:37 AM Buffalo, NY (Sports Network) - Benoit Pouliot scored twice, including the tie- breaking goal late in the second period, to lift Montreal to a 3-2 decision over Buffalo at HSBC Arena.

Jeff Halpern added a goal and two assists for the Canadiens, who ended a two- game slide to win for a fifth time in their last seven games.

Carey Price stopped 29 shots to earn his 67th career victory, tying him with Jocelyn Thibault and Richard Sevigny for 16th on Montreal's all-time list.

Mike Grier and Jordan Leopold tallied for the Sabres, who have lost five in a row and six of their last seven.

Patrick Lalime allowed three goals on 32 shots in defeat for the Sabres, who fell to 0-6-1 at home this season.

With the game tied late, 2-2, Halpern took an outlet pass on the Canadiens side of center ice and tipped a pass ahead to Pouliot, who carried into the attack zone. He ripped a slapshot from the top of the left circle past Lalime on the short side with 2:48 to go in the middle session to give the visitors a 3-2 lead.

Tyler Ennis led a 3-on-1 up the left side and sent a cross ice pass to Grier, who moved left, avoided Price's poke check and stuffed in a backhander for his first of the season to get the Sabres on the board 17:18 into the contest.

The Habs tied it 82 seconds later when Mathieu Darche fed from behind the net into the slot for Halpern, who one-timed a shot past Lalime.

In the second, Paul Gaustad was denied on a stuffer from the right side, but the Canadiens' clearing attempt hit a body in the traffic in front of the net and squirted free to the left of the crease. A pinching Leopold snuck in and chipped in the loose puck to give the Sabres a 2-1 lead just over nine minutes into the second period.

Again, the hosts couldn't hang on to the lead for very long, as it took the Canadiens 46 seconds to net the equalizer on a backhander by Pouliot.

Game Notes

Andrei Markov played in his 618th game with Montreal and moved past Mats Naslund into 33rd place on the all-time franchise list...Price has started all 10 games for the Canadiens and is their first netminder to do so since Patrick Roy opened the 1995-96 campaign by playing in the first 11 contests...Price beat the Sabres for a seventh time in 14 career meetings...Canadiens forward Tomas Plekanec missed the game with flu-like symptoms...Montreal has won the first two of the six-game season series...Lalime is 17-9-3 in 32 career games against Montreal...Lindy Ruff was behind the bench for his 998th career game as the Buffalo head coach.