BUFFALO New Jersey Devils Hats Authentic , N.Y. (AP) For the first time in nearly a decade, the Buffalo Sabres had the bounces to go their way against the Chicago Blackhawks.Nicholas Baptiste scored two goals in the third period to lead the Sabres to a 5-3 win over the Blackhawks on Saturday. It was Buffalo¡¯s first win over the Blackhawks since December 2009, snapping a 12-game losing streak against Chicago.The game featured deflections and redirections for both teams, with three of Buffalo¡¯s five goals a result of fortuitous bounces.¡±Definitely some lucky bounces, that¡¯s for sure,¡± said Sabres center Ryan O¡¯Reilly, who had a goal and an assist. ¡±A little luck of the Irish tonight.¡±Benoit Pouliot and Sam Reinhart also scored for the Sabres ¨C who wore green St. Patrick¡¯s Day jerseys during warmups ¨C and Chad Johnson made 34 saves.Baptiste was an unlikely star, picking up the sixth and seventh goals of his career.The 22-year-old tied the game at 3-3 early in the third on a long shot through traffic. With 1:56 remaining, he picked up the game-winner on a deflection. Following a faceoff win in the Chicago end, Marco Scandella¡¯s shot from the point was deflected by Baptiste in the slot to put the Sabres on top for good.¡±That¡¯s been the focus of our team for the last little while ¨C getting shots to the net and getting bodies to the net and scoring some ugly ones and we got a couple tonight,¡± Baptiste said. ¡±That¡¯s what it takes to score goals in this league and to win in this league.¡±The Sabres got a significant lift from the returning Jack Eichel, who was back in the lineup after missing 15 games because of an ankle injury. Eichel had one assist and five shots in 18:14.¡±It¡¯s so nice to have him back,¡± O¡¯Reilly said. ¡±The little things he does when he gets the puck, you feel like the whole building is like Custom New Jersey Devils Jerseys , `OK, what¡¯s he going to do?¡¯ The other team has to be so sharp when he¡¯s out there and it makes us a more dangerous team.¡±Eichel briefly tweaked his ankle early in the third period, but said he was fine after the game.Jonathan Toews, Jordan Oesterle and Tomas Jurco scored for the Blackhawks, and Jean-Francois Berube made 27 saves.¡±A couple tips and just didn¡¯t get the job done,¡± Blackhawks winger Patrick Kane said. ¡±It¡¯s been a common theme here for a while. A lot of the games, it even seems we¡¯re scoring the first goal and we can¡¯t come up with anything. It¡¯s kind of been that way all year.¡±Pouliot opened the scoring with 1:50 remaining in the first period. After Rasmus Ristolainen¡¯s pass was deflected into the crease, Pouliot had an easy tap-in for his 13th goal of the season.Oesterle evened the score 8:15 into the second following a pretty passing sequence in the Sabres zone. After Toews led Patrick Kane with a drop pass, Kane swung to his right before firing a pass to a wide-open Oesterle in front of the Buffalo net. Oesterle had an easy finish for his fifth goal of the season.O¡¯Reilly made it 2-1 on the power play with 8:53 left in the second, poking in a rebound that fell behind Berube after Eichel¡¯s shot hit the goalie¡¯s shoulder and went high into the air.Chicago evened the score again with 5:45 left in the second when a rebound from Toews¡¯ shot hit Ristolainen and went into the net. Jurco was given credit for the goal.Toews made it 3-2 on a terrific one-man effort 20 seconds into the third period. After his initial shot on a 2-on-1 was stopped, the Blackhawks captain sped to the crease and stole the rebound off Johnson¡¯s stick. The puck flipped into the air, and Toews batted it in for his 20th goal of the season.Reinhart added an empty-net goal with 38.4 seconds left.NOTES: Buffalo native Emily Pfalzer was honored in a ceremonial opening faceoff before the game. Pfalzer was a member of the United States women¡¯s hockey team at the 2018 Olympics, winning the gold medal in a shootout victory against Canada. Pfalzer was also captain of the Buffalo Beauts in the National Women¡¯s Hockey League in 2015-16 and 2016-17. ¡­ Sabres center Zemgus Girgensons was injured midway through the first period and did not return. ¡­ Sabres starting goalie Robin Lehner was a healthy scratch.UP NEXTBlackhawks: Home against St. Louis on Sunday.Sabres: Host the Nashville Predators on Monday.¡ª LAS VEGAS (AP) It was a great time for Vegas Golden Knights owner Bill Foley to visit the locker room after their latest win.The Golden Knights had just beaten one of the NHL¡¯s Original Six teams, set another record for an expansion team in its inaugural season www.officialislanders.com , and they also leapfrogged the Tampa Bay Lightning for the top spot in the NHL standings with 82 points.Reilly Smith had two goals and an assist to lead Vegas to a 6-3 win over the struggling Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night.Article continues below ...¡±It¡¯s fantastic for us, it¡¯s fantastic for the team, it¡¯s fantastic for the fans ¨C I love it,¡± Foley said. ¡±It¡¯s really unbelievable and I wish Reilly would have gotten that last goal for a hat trick, because he deserves it.¡±Foley admitted when the season started he didn¡¯t think he¡¯d be doing interviews this late in the season, but with his team clearly headed to the playoffs, he didn¡¯t mind fielding questions.¡±I knew we had a good team,¡± Foley said. ¡±When we did the expansion draft, it was a lot of hard work, and we put a lot of planning into it. We had five mock draft sessions in the expansion draft. We knew what we were getting. The result is what we have.¡±What Vegas has, is a team that improved to 22-4-2 at T-Mobile Arena, matching the 1979-80 Hartford Whalers (22-12-6) for the most home wins by a team in its first season.Since their 3-2 loss in Montreal on Nov. 7, the Golden Knights are 30-10-3 while the Canadiens are 15-21-6.Brad Hunt, Tomas Nosek New York Islanders T-Shirts Authentic , Ryan Carpenter, Nate Schmidt also scored for Vegas, while Jonathan Marchessault had three assists. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 30 shots, including a highlight-reel glove save on Charles Hudon skating in on a breakaway in the third period, to improve to 19-6-2.¡±We just want to play the same way that¡¯s made us successful and keep going forward and not kind of relax a bit, we just want to stay with it,¡± Hunt said. ¡±We still got a lot of work to do. We just take it day by day, we¡¯re not looking too far forward.¡±Hudon, Nikita Scherbak and Jonathan Drouin scored for Montreal. Antti Niemi started and gave up three goals on six shots before being replaced by Carey Price midway through the first period. Price, who came into the game having lost eight straight road games, finished with 24 saves.Montreal, which fell to 2-5-1 this month, has the league¡¯s worst road record at 8-19-1. The Canadiens have lost 11 of their last 12 away from home and have been outscored 41-16 during the slide.¡±It¡¯s always tough when you lose,¡± Scherbak said. ¡±We¡¯re trying to stick together. We have a great group of guys here New York Islanders Hoodies Authentic , everybody supports each other, and nobody is happy to lose.¡±Smith got the scoring going with his seventh power-play goal of the season after taking Schmidt¡¯s pass and one-time a laser past Niemi 2:16 into the game.The Golden Knights scored with the man advantage for the 12th time in 13 games, finishing 1 for 2 on the night. Vegas also improved to 24-3-0 when scoring the first goal of the game and their .889 win percentage when recording the opening mark leads the NHL.¡±First goal has been huge for us this year,¡± Smith said. ¡±Our record is pretty outstanding when we score the first one. But it¡¯s teams like that, if you let them stay around, they¡¯re the ones that are going to make you pay. Those leads are huge at the start and they help us out.¡±Hudon tied it a couple of minutes later, as he skated past Hunt and used a nifty move to beat Fleury.But Hunt made amends for losing Hudon down the boards when he drilled a slap shot from the point to put Vegas ahead. Nosek¡¯s goal made it 3-1 and sent Niemi to the bench.Scherbak got his first goal of the season to cut the lead to 3-2 with 8:13 left in the opening period.Carpenter scored his fifth goal in seven games 3:07 into the second period, and Smith got his second of the game 37 seconds later to make it 5-2.Schmidt got his fifth on a pass from Smith to give Vegas a four-goal lead four minutes into the third.Just 13 seconds into a power play, Drouin fired a slap shot into the back of the net at 8:44 to close the scoring.NOTES: Montreal D Joe Morrow played in his 100th career game, while F Paul Byron played in his 100th consecutive game. ¡­ When Price entered the game he tied Patrick Roy for second in team history for most games played by a goalie. ¡­ Canadiens C Tomas Plekanec moved into seventh place for the most games played in team history. ¡­ Golden Knights defenseman Luca Sbisa is now one point away from 100 for his career.UP NEXTMontreal: At Philadelphia on Tuesday.Vegas: Hosts Anaheim on Monday.