MONTREAL – Last week, coach Lindy Ruff said he relayed a straightforward message to goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen as he patiently waited for his next opportunity to play.
“Your time will come, you got to be ready,” Ruff told him.
At the time, with goalie Alex Lyon performing so dynamically, Luukkonen might’ve felt his next start would materialize in the distant future. But Ruff has relied on two, sometimes three netminders all season.
While Luukkonen struggled early in the Stanley Cup Playoffs and got yanked in favor in favor of Lyon, Ruff clearly felt comfortable utilizing the Finn again.
As Lyon took over, Luukkonen quietly went about his business – “He’s been a great teammate,” Ruff said – and prepared for his next chance.
On Tuesday, having suffered back-to-back four-goal losses to the Canadiens, Ruff tapped Luukkonen on the shoulder again for Game 4.
“It’s what we are,” Ruff said prior to watching Luukkonen make 28 saves in Tuesday’s thrilling 3-2 victory in a raucous Bell Centre that evened the best-of-seven series at 2. “It’s what we’ve been the whole year.”
In his first action since April 21, Game 2 against the Boston Bruins, Luukkonen responded with a splendid effort, making several critical saves.
The second-round series is now a best-of-three, with two games potentially in Buffalo. You can bet Luukkonen will be back in net on Thursday at KeyBank Center.
“He’s a dog,” said Sabres winger Zach Benson, who scored the game-winning goal on the power play 4:41 into the third period. “We had all the confidence in the world in him, all of our goalies.
“Upie made so many big saves tonight that we really needed in key moments. All the credit goes to him. He was the biggest reason of why we walked out of this building with a win.”
The biggest saves came during a penalty kill in the second period, when Luukkonen stymied two wicked one-timers from the left circle from 51-goal scorer Cole Caufield.
“Those are the saves everyone’s up on the bench,” Ruff said. “They’re game-changers.”
That’s around the time Luukkonen said he started finding a rhythm before the capacity crowd of 20,962 fans.
“In the second period, it started to feel a lot more comfortable to play,” he said.
Fresh off two wretched losses – the Sabres fell 6-2 on Sunday and 5-1 on Friday – most of the Sabres looked a heck of a lot more comfortable throughout the night and plowed through some difficult moments.
“We finally tightened things up,” Ruff said. “We finally got to the place where we need to be. It looked like our team again, from the start of the game to the way we finished the game.”
After defenseman Mattias Samuelsson scored 6:32 into the game, winger Jack Quinn appeared to give the Sabres a 2-0 lead at 8:02.
Following a long review, replays showed Canadiens goalie Jakub Dobes’ glove crossed the goal line with the puck in it.
The Canadiens then challenged for goalie interference, and officials ruled rookie center Konsta Helenius, who made his postseason debut, made contact with Dobes’ stick.
“I totally disagree with (the reversal), just for the fact that Dobes is always swinging his stick,” Ruff said. “He initiated the contact with Helenius with the stick coming across the crease.”
Alex Newhook tied the game later in the period before Caufield’s power-play goal at 19:47 gave the Canadiens a 2-1 lead.
The Sabres tied the game 7:00 into the second period, getting a fluke power-play goal from center Tage Thompson, whose shot into the zone hit the Zamboni door, bounced out and slid past a surprised Dobes.
“I rimmed it and obviously saw it hit the glass and … a few guys put their hands up,” Thompson said.
The Sabres got into penalty trouble all night, giving the Canadiens six power plays. Late in the second period and early in the third, they killed off defenseman Bowen Byram’s four-minute high-sticking call.
“We definitely felt if we kill the penalty, the momentum would kind of go our way,” Ruff said. “They get a goal, they get the momentum.”
Minutes later, Benson, who turned 21 on Tuesday, put the Sabres ahead.
“Our belief never wavered,” Benson said. “I know you guys like to talk about that stuff. But within our room, we believed.”
