Greenway Buffalo Sabres Build 4-2 Lead With Two Second-Period Goals

Jordan Greenway and Bowen Byram pushed greenway buffalo sabres into a 4-2 lead over the Montreal Canadiens after the second period of Game 1 on May 7, 2026. Greenway scored his first playoff goal at 3:32 of the period, and Byram followed with a power-play shot at 9:01.

Greenway Opens The Second Period

Greenway gave Buffalo the first jolt of the period by finishing off a setup from Mattias Samuelsson. It was his first goal of these playoffs, and it came four minutes after the Sabres had already carried a 2-1 lead out of the opening period.

Buffalo kept pressing after that. Jack Quinn hit the crossbar on a two-on-one chance, a near miss that kept the pressure on Montreal before the Sabres added again.

Byram Extends Buffalo

Byram made it 4-1 when he scored on a wrist shot from the point at 9:01 of the second period. The goal came on the power play, and it was Buffalo’s second conversion on its first three chances in the series.

That start stands out against what Buffalo did against Boston, when it went 1-for-24 with the man-advantage. The Sabres did not need a long sequence to show the difference; they cashed in early and forced Montreal to play from behind for most of the period.

Montreal Cuts The Margin

Kirby Dach answered late in the second period for Montreal, with Alex Lyon in goal for Buffalo when the puck went in. The Canadiens still went to the intermission down two goals, and that gap was larger through two periods than the lead Montreal had faced across the entire series against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Josh Doan and Ryan McLeod scored for Buffalo in the first period, while Nick Suzuki scored for Montreal. The result through 40 minutes left the Sabres in control of Game 1 at 4-2, with their power play already doing more damage than it did over an entire series against Boston.