Sabres Give Away Valuable Point

Christopher Higgins scored with 1:22 left in overtime as Montreal rallied from a late two-goal deficit to beat the Buffalo Sabres, 4-3, at HSBC Arena. Tomas Plekanec scored twice while Mark Streit added three assists for the Canadiens, who have won their last four games. Carey Price finished the game with 35 saves for Montreal, which jumped back ahead of Pittsburgh for first overall in the Eastern Conference. Montreal now has 98 points while Pittsburgh has 97 points. "We had two days off where the players relaxed and really took their minds off hockey and it took us 57 minutes to get it back," Canadiens coach Guy Carbonneau said. "I dont think we played really bad but there was no energy. (Buffalo) played desperate, they had to. We just kind of showed up. We didnt respond but sometimes its better to be lucky than good and we took advantage of it in the last minutes." Drew Stafford, Nathan Paetsch and Daniel Paille each lit the lamp for the Sabres, who have dropped three of their last four and sit four points behind Boston for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with four games to play. Ryan Miller made 25 saves in the loss. Trailing, 3-1, late in the third period, Plekanec scored twice in a bit over two minutes to tie the game. On the power play, Streits shot from the high slot was tipped into the net by Plekanec in front with 2:31 to play. With Price on the bench for the extra attacker, Streit fired a shot on net that Miller stopped, but Plekanec was in position to grab the rebound and backhanded the puck into the net from down low with 15 seconds left to force the overtime. "We played smart throughout the whole game and then unfortunately we took a penalty," Sabres forward Paille said. "We know they have a great power play and obviously they capitalized on that so that once they made it a one goal lead we should have been able to hold them off but breaks, they got a rebound goal and its tough for Miller to stop that" Montreal then grabbed the win with 1:22 left in the extra session. A loose puck came out to the right circle where Streit took control of the puck and sent a quick pass to Higgins, who redirected the puck into the net from the left side for the win. "We were working hard behind the net there," Higgins said. "It popped out to (Streit). Hes the kind of guy that can make that kind of pass. I was able to sneak behind their defense. I was sitting on the far post, just redirected it in." The first period was a scoreless affair with Price stopping all 11 shots he faced and Miller making five saves. Buffalo took a 1-0 lead just 2:25 into the second period. Roy fired a backhander on net that went off the skate of Stafford in front and past Price. The play was briefly reviewed to see if Stafford redirected the puck into the net, but the call on the ice was upheld. However, Montreal answered with just 37 seconds left in the second. Mikhail Grabovski faked a shot in the slot and sent a quick touch pass over to the left circle where Alex Kovalev fired a one-timer into the net. Buffalo scored twice in a 1:45 span of the third to take a 3-1 lead. On the first goal, Roy flew into the Montreal end and lost the puck as he was trying to get open, but Paetsch followed up on the play, grabbed the disc and beat Price with a wrister to the glove side at the 5:30 mark. A bit later, Jason Pominville stole the puck behind the Montreal net and fired a blind backhand pass to the slot where Paille received the pass and got the puck into the net with a wrister. Game Notes Montreal plays in Toronto on Saturday...Buffalo plays in Boston on Sunday...Montreal went 1-for-2 on the power play while Buffalo went 0- for-5...Kovalev finished the game with a goal and an assist and leads the Canadiens with 81 points (34 goals, 47 assists).