BUFFALO, New York (Ticker) -- The return of Saku Koivu could not jump-start the Montreal Canadiens.
Daniel Briere and Ales Kotalik scored second-period goals and Mika Noronen came within 6 1/2 minutes of his second shutout of the season as the Buffalo Sabres held on for a 2-1 victory over the slumping Canadiens.
Koivu, Montreal's captain and leading scorer, missed the first 13 games of the season with a sprained left knee. He was second among Canadiens' forwards in ice time at just over 19 1/2 minutes, but he did not figure in the scoring as Montreal lost for the sixth time in seven games.
"I played more than I expected," Koivu said. "It's been a long time since I played my last game, so it's going to take some time to get back into game shape."
Briere, a Quebec native, put Buffalo ahead for good on the power play at 4:37 of the second period. With 26 seconds left on Richard Zednik's slashing penalty, Briere darted off the goal line and stuffed the puck past goaltender Jose Theodore for his third goal of the season.
"Chris Drury takes a slap shot. I think he hit the defenseman in the ankle, he was limping a little bit," Briere said. "When he gave it back to me, I knew this guy was struggling on his feet. I just took it to the net. It took a few seconds for me to realize it went in."
The Canadiens were unable to clear the puck just under seven minutes later and Kotalik beat Theodore with a backhander from the edge of the right faceoff circle for his fifth goal.
Noronen made the lead stand, although he gave up a goal to former Sabre Donald Audette with 6:26 remaining. The 24-year-old Finn improved to 3-1-0 and has given up just four goals in his three wins.
"When your goaltender is the first star of the night, you need those games," Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff said. "You need your goaltender to win hockey games. Mika definitely won us a hockey game tonight."
"I just had to block the net and try to be in front of the puck," Noronen said. "I was just trying to make the saves. They really didn't get any 2-on-1s, 3-on-2s."
Montreal continued to struggle offensively and has totaled seven goals in its last seven games.
"We've really done a fairly good job overall at reducing the shots against and the scoring chances against. Right now, it's being overshadowed by the fact we're not scoring and losing hockey games," Canadiens coach Claude Julien said. "If we can get a little bit of luck around the net, it'll change the outlook of our hockey club and how people perceive (us)."
The Canadiens dominated the first period, outshooting the Sabres, 13-3. But Mike Ribeiro could not slip a tight-angle rebound past Noronen and Zednik was unable to finish off a three-way passing play.
"We shot 38 times, we need more offense," Audette said. "We've got to find a way, go to the net, get ugly goals. Mine was an ugly goal, but that's the kind of goal when you're in a slump that you try to create. The beauty's not going to happen too often."
Montreal had a 15-5 edge in shots in the third period, finally breaking through when Audette pounced on a rebound in the crease and pushed it past an out-of-position Noronen.
Theodore turned aside just 15 shots and has lost four of his last five decisions.
