The Buffalo Sabres and Montreal Canadiens are set for a Game 7 showdown to settle their Eastern Conference second-round matchup on Monday night.

The Sabres scored seven unanswered goals in an 8-3 win in Game 6 on Saturday night in Montreal, forcing the deciding game back in Buffalo.

“It’s probably the worst game we’ve played, so we’re only going up,” Canadiens forward Nick Suzuki said. “It’s going to be important for guys to look at themselves in the mirror and say we’ve got an opportunity to win one game and advance to the third round. So, we’ll take that any time throughout the season.”

Montreal also needed seven games to decide its first-round matchup against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Canadiens missed a chance to clinch in Game 6 at home in that round, but went to the Sunshine State and pulled out a 2-1 victory.

“We’re a team that is really resilient,” Suzuki said. “We’ve been in this situation already in the first round, so we have experience. We just have to win one game. That’s the focus right now.”

Suzuki thinks the Canadiens may have put too much pressure on themselves to clinch at home, where thousands of fans surrounded their home arena hours before puck drop in hopes of celebrating victory.

“Maybe we wanted to try to do too much here to impress the fans and give them back some love,” Suzuki said. “Can’t just let that affect us mentally, and we’ve got to keep things simple and keep doing what makes us successful, regardless of where we’re playing.”

The winner of Game 7 will play the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference final beginning Thursday in Raleigh, N.C.

Carolina has been off since completing its sweep of the Philadelphia Flyers on May 9. The Hurricanes also swept the Ottawa Senators in the first round.

The Canadiens won all three games against Carolina during the regular season, while the Sabres lost two of three.

The Sabres have played in seven Game 7s in their franchise history. Their lone win came in overtime against the Ottawa Senators in the 1997 conference quarterfinals.

“It’s going to be awesome,” Buffalo forward Tage Thompson said of playing in his first Game 7 in the NHL. “It’s a new experience for a lot of guys in this room, and something you dream of growing up.

“We knew going into this series it was going to be a long one. They’re a good team, and I think it’s just something that gets you excited. It’s another game that we get to embrace. I think if you would have asked every guy in here in September if they would have taken being in Game 7 in round two, we all would have signed up for that, so we’re in a great spot.”

Thompson said the Sabres don’t need to do anything differently in the winner-take-all game, just focus on each shift and the task at hand. Same as they did in Game 6.

“We kept it simple,” Thompson said. “We didn’t mess around with the puck in areas where we’re going to give them any free offense, and guys competed and played hard. You do that, usually, you’re going to have success.”

–Field Level Media

The Dallas Wings have been asked by their coach to carry a new attitude to the court when they host the gritty Washington Mystics on Monday in Arlington, Texas.

The Wings (1-2) have dropped the first two games of a three-game homestand, most recently a 90-86 setback to Minnesota on Thursday. Paige Bueckers led Dallas with 27 points while Maddy Siegrist added 17, all in the first half, and Odyssey Sims hit for 11.

Arike Ogunbowale, who was the Wings’ leading scorer in their first two games, had just six points on 2 of 11 shooting from the floor. Recent top overall WNBA draft selection Azi Fudd scored a career-high eight points after missing Dallas’ game with Atlanta on Tuesday with a knee injury.

After winning their first game of the season in overtime in Indiana, the Wings have lost their next two by a combined nine points.

New Dallas coach Jose Fernandez has called out his team for being selfish while demanding that the Wings’ players understand what’s important and what’s not.

“Really, really good teams and championship teams, they don’t care who starts, they don’t care how many minutes they play,” Fernandez explained. “They don’t care if the ball’s not going in for them; they can do different things on the defensive end. When we start doing that, and we don’t get in our feelings — because body language never whispers. Championship teams, you play for the guy next to you.

“And it doesn’t matter if the ball’s not going in, you can do so many other things. You can defend, you can share it, you can go get stuff off the glass. When that changes, then you don’t lose these type of games.”

Washington (2-1) travels to the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex with momentum built from a 104-102 overtime win at Indiana on Friday. Sonia Citron led the way for the Mystics with 30 points on 10-for-14 shooting while Kiki Iriafen racked up 25 points, Shakira Austin tallied 19 and Cotie McMahon scored five of her 13 points in overtime during her WNBA debut.

“Every single game we want to put our best foot forward,” Citron said. “We want to show who we can be, and we want to be tough. We showed how gritty we are (in the win at Indiana).”

The Mystics have played back-to-back overtime contests; they lost 98-93 in OT vs. New York on May 10. All three of their games have been decided by five points or less.

“This just shows our resilience,” Iriafen said. “We believe we can beat anybody, no matter what it shows on paper. We truly believe in each other. We play with an edge to us. We know nobody’s going to help us out.”

Monday’s game is the first of three between the teams this season. Washington will host the Wings in back-to-back contest on July 31 and Aug. 5.

–Field Level Media

When the Connecticut Sun take on the host Portland Fire on Monday, the game will probably not be a defensive battle. Portland and Connecticut rank at the bottom of the WNBA in the early season defensive scoring stats, allowing 98 and 98.5 points per game, respectively. Monday’s matchup offers a chance to improve and grab an elusive win for the Sun.

Connecticut (0-4) is the last winless squad in the WNBA. The Sun dropped a 101-94 shootout to WNBA defending champion Las Vegas on Friday. The game represented a season-high point total for Connecticut, but much of the talk afterward centered around A’ja Wilson’s 45 points for Las Vegas.

“We know that she’s the best player in the world,” said Sun coach Rachid Meziane. “But I do think Reagan (Beers) freezed up a little bit… and she was a little too much of a spectator tonight.”

Beers, a rookie, had just six points while drawing the tough defensive assignment off the bench, but six Sun players scored in double figures. Connecticut was led by 17 points from Hailey Van Lith on 7-for-11 shooting.

Connecticut was at least competitive down the stretch on Friday, unlike a couple of brutal losses earlier, prompting Meziane to note, “We can be proud of how we fought tonight. It was a lot better for us.”

Brittney Griner, who leads the Sun with 14.5 points per game, has missed the last two contests with a left foot injury and is listed as day-to-day.

Portland (1-2) has had its own troubles, coming off a 100-82 loss to the New York Liberty on Thursday. The expansion Fire allowed New York to shoot 15 of 38 from 3-point range.

The long-range attack buried Portland in the third quarter. The Fire trailed by two at the half and just four with 5:15 left in the third quarter, but the quarter ended with a 20-7 Liberty run including three 3-point bombs that allowed New York to pull away.

“The story of the game was evident in that third-quarter stretch,” said Fire coach Alex Sarama. “We can’t let what happens with our offense define our defensive side… and I think we went away from that in the third quarter.”

Five players scored in double figures for Portland, led by reserve Megan Gustafson’s 14 points (on 5-for-6 shooting) in just 14 minutes.

“We’re going to keep trapping, keep scrambling,” said Sarama. “That’s the only way it can be.”

Guard Carla Leite, who leads the team with 19.5 points per game, did not play on Thursday and remains day-to-day with a right ankle injury.

–Field Level Media