The battle to join the Carolina Hurricanes in the conference finals of the 2026 NHL playoffs continued Sunday with a game in the East and a game in the West.

The Montreal Canadiens hosted the Buffalo Sabres for Game 3 in the East after they split the first two contests, while the Anaheim Ducks looked to tie things up with the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 4 out West after losing two of the first three.

Here is a look at how it all unfolded.

Momentum is fully on the Canadiens’ side in their second-round series against the Sabres.

After stealing home-ice advantage with a road win in Game 2, they kept it in resounding fashion with a 6-2 victory in Game 3. Buffalo actually scored first when Tage Thompson found the back of the net in the opening minute, but the contest quickly turned.

Montreal scored the next four goals with Alex Newhook, Cole Caufield, Zack Bolduc and Juraj Slafkovsky all connecting on chances. Rasmus Dahlin seized some momentum back late in the second period with a power-play goal to make it 4-2 to at least stop the slide for the visitors.

But that momentum was short-lived.

Kirby Dach scored in the third period to give Montreal some breathing room right back, which was more than enough with Jakub Dobes between the pipes. The goaltender stopped 26 of the 28 shots he faced, and the game was never in doubt in the final minutes after Newhook buried another one.

The Canadiens will now have the chance to build a commanding 3-1 lead if they continue rolling on home ice in Tuesday’s Game 4.

Ducks 4, Golden Knights 3

The second-round series between the Ducks and Golden Knights is going to be a long one.

Anaheim needed to bounce back from a blowout loss in Game 3 to realistically still have a chance, and it did so in a major way with a 4-3 victory on home ice. The series is now tied at two games apiece, and there is also guaranteed to be one more game in Anaheim before the Western Conference Final.

The Ducks wasted little time seizing momentum Sunday when Beckett Sennecke scored in the opening 10 minutes, but the rest of the game was defined by their ability to answer every Golden Knights’ spark.

Pavel Dorofeyev scored an equalizer for the visitors just for Mikael Granlund to give Anaheim the lead back before the first period ended. From there, Brett Howden tied it in the second period only for Alex Killorn and Ian Moore to make it 4-2 when they found the back of the net.

The Ducks looked to be in cruise control for most of the third period after taking the two-goal lead, but Tomas Hertl provided one more test with a goal to make it 4-3 with just more than one minute remaining.

As it did all game, Anaheim answered back with strong defense and play from goaltender Lukas Dostal to preserve the win. Dostal saved 18 of the 21 shots he faced and turned away one last offensive push from the Golden Knights to avoid overtime.

The series now returns to Vegas for Tuesday’s critical Game 5.