Canadiens beat Sabres to take a 2-1 lead in the second-round Eastern Conference series

MONTREAL (AP) — Cole Caufield scored his second goal of the playoffs and added an assist as the Montreal Canadiens beat the Buffalo Sabres 6-2 in a dominant Game 3 on Sunday night to take a 2-1 lead in their second-round playoff series.

Alex Newhook had two goals, including an empty-netter, and Zachary Bolduc, Juraj Slafkovsky and Kirby Dach also scored for Montreal.

Lane Hutson and Jake Evans each had two assists, and Jakub Dobes made 26 saves as the Canadiens won consecutive games for the first time in this season’s playoffs.

Tage Thompson and Rasmus Dahlin each had a goal and an assist for Buffalo, which dropped its first road game of the postseason. Alex Lyon stopped 31 shots in his second straight loss.

The teams split the first two games in Buffalo. The Sabres handed the Canadiens a 4-2 loss in Game 1 before Montreal responded with a 5-1 victory in Game 2.

Game 4 is Tuesday night in Montreal.

DUCKS 4, GOLDEN KNIGHTS 3

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Alex Killorn and rookie Beckett Sennecke had a goal and an assist apiece, and Anaheim beat Vegas in Game 4 to even their second-round series at two games apiece.

Ian Moore got his first career playoff goal, Cutter Gauthier contributed three assists and Mikael Granlund also scored for the upstart Ducks, who responded to their 6-2 blowout loss in Game 3 with a mature two-way performance in their first playoff run since 2018.

Lukas Dostal made 18 saves in a strong bounce-back effort after getting pulled from Game 3 for allowing three goals in his latest shaky first period, and his teammates provided more than enough offense to even the series.

Game 5 is Tuesday night in Las Vegas, with Game 6 back in Anaheim on Thursday night.

Pavel Dorofeyev and Brett Howden scored for the Golden Knights, whose three-game road winning streak ended.