CHICAGO, IL, MAY 16, 2026 — Zach Metsa scored a power-play goal through the five-hole in his playoff debut, and the Sabres beat the Canadiens in Game 6 to force a Game 7.
Rasmus Dahlin drove the result with five points, giving Buffalo the lift it needed to keep the series alive. The Sabres’ win pushed the matchup to a seventh game in Buffalo, where the pressure now turns from survival to resolution.
Metsa’s goal came in the middle of a game that already belonged to the Sabres’ top end, with Dahlin dictating much of the pace and the power play delivering when it had to. For Metsa, the moment mattered because it arrived in his first postseason game, the kind of debut players remember long after the series ends.
The victory also changed the shape of the series in one night. A team that was on the edge of elimination now gets one more chance at home, while the Canadiens are left to regroup after letting Game 6 slip away. Buffalo did not just extend the series; it seized back control of the narrative and sent it to a Game 7 it had to earn.
That leaves the Sabres with the only kind of chance that matters in the playoffs: one game, in their own building, with everything still in front of them.
