Stanley Cup Playoffs Day 19: Ducks tie series against Golden Knights, Sabres strike first

The Stanley Cup Playoffs are back, which means that for the next two months, we’ll get non-stop action as we witness 16 teams get whittled down to the one that will be crowned as the 2026 Stanley Cup champions. Here at Daily Faceoff, we’ll be keeping you in the loop on everything that happens in the playoffs, every day until the Stanley Cup is hoisted in June.

Wednesday night saw the beginning of the highly anticipated matchup in the Atlantic Division Final, while the exciting series in the Pacific Division continued out west.

Lyon, Doan lead Sabres to victory

Game 1 of the series between the Buffalo Sabres and Montreal Canadiens kicked off the action, and the fans inside KeyBank Center didn’t go home disappointed. Excellent goaltending and timely scoring pushed the Sabres a 4-2 victory.

The boisterous crowd was treated to a hot start from the home team. Just a few minutes into the contest, an error from Canadiens defenseman Lane Hutson led to an odd-man rush for the Sabres, with Zach Benson feeding Josh Doan for his second of the playoffs.

Later in the frame, Buffalo was granted a power play. A beautiful play off a faceoff led to Doan and Benson teaming up, leading to Ryan McLeod tapping in his first of the postseason, putting the Sabres up 2-0 with a little over six minutes left in the first.

Yet, the Canadiens weren’t going to let the game get out of hand. In the final minute of the frame, on the man advantage, Juraj Slafkovsky made a cute play that led to captain Nick Suzuki finding the back of the net, cutting the deficit to one heading into the first intermission.

While the Canadiens created some momentum at the end of the first 20 minutes, the Sabres remained opportunistic early on in the middle stanza. Just a few minutes into the second, Jordan Greenway put a shot past Habs goaltender Jakub Dobes to restore the two-goal lead. Not long before the halfway mark of the contest, more traffic caused havoc for Dobes, as a point shot from Bowen Byram soared past him, giving the Sabres a 4-1 lead thanks to the team’s second PPG of the night.

Montreal looked to prove they were not out of it late in the period, as an individual effort from Kirby Dach cut into Buffalo’s lead, as Dach snuck in his third of the playoffs with less than four to go in the frame.

While the Canadiens attempted to stage a comeback, the Sabres locked things down defensively. Buffalo only posted one shot on goal itself in the final frame, withstanding a strong push from the visitors to grab the all-important 1-0 series lead.

Doan, Benson and McLeod all had two points in the win, but arguably the team’s first star of the night was goaltender Alex Lyon. The 33-year-old made 26 saves in his fourth win of the playoffs. Dobes was credited with just 12 saves in the loss.

The Sabres ended the night going 2-for-3 on power play, while the Habs were just 1-for-2.

Ducks hang on to even series against Golden Knights

The nightcap saw the Vegas Golden Knights look to take a first grasp of the Pacific Division Final against the Anaheim Ducks. However, it was the younger Ducks who came to life, leading the team to a 3-1 win.

Like the first game of the series, the Ducks came out swinging, getting a prime scoring chance in the first 10 seconds of the game. It proved that, despite a tough overtime loss in Game 1, Anaheim didn’t let it fester into Wednesday night. It took some time before the Ducks finally pulled through, as forward Beckett Sennecke scored his second goal of the playoffs just past the halfway mark of the second period.

While Vegas tried to push back as the middle stanza wore on, the Ducks stayed out in front thanks to goaltender Lukas Dostal. His efforts were rewarded in the third, as Leo Carlsson added his fourth of the postseason a few minutes into the frame to extend the lead.

James Harkins seemed to put the game on ice with an empty-net goal, but Mark Stone scored with just six seconds to go to break the shutout. Yet, it was too little, too late, as Anaheim managed to even the series before returning home.

Dostal ended up making 21 saves in the victory, while Vegas’ Carter Hart made 25 stops in defeat. Despite the win, the Ducks’ power play struggled, failing to score on five opportunities. Vegas went 1-for-4 on the man advantage.