Montreal Canadiens defenceman P.K. Subban left hospital on Friday after suffering a neck injury Thursday night.

In the third period against the Buffalo Sabres, Subban went into the corner of his own zone with Buffalo's Marcus Foligno.

He fell to his knees but was then hit in the head by teammate Alexei Emelin's leg.

Subban fell to the ice and grabbed the back of his head. He lay on the ice for eight minutes as trainers tended to him.

He was eventually wheeled off the ice on a stretcher. He gave fans a thumbs up as he was being pushed away.

 

 

On Friday morning Subban was released from hospital, with the Canadiens saying that Subban was not badly hurt. 

Subban is not going to play in Saturday's game against the Minnesota Wild, and is now listed as day-to-day by the squad.

Habs won 3-2

The injury occurred in the dying minutes of the game, which Montreal won 3-2. Alex Galchenyuk continued his hot streak, scoring twice in the second period. Torrey Mitchell also scored for Montreal (32-30-6). Mike Condon made 36 saves for his 17th win of the season, best among rookie goaltenders.

Nicolas Deslauriers and Brian Gionta scored for the Sabres (27-33-9). Robin Lehner stopped 31-of-34 shots in net.

Mitchell scored the winner for Montreal at 13:21 of the third period. The winger managed to control a bouncing puck to beat Lehner from a tight angle through traffic.

The Canadiens jumped into 11th in the Eastern Conference with the win. They are 7-0-1 in their last eight home games.

After an uneventful first period, the Sabres and Canadiens scored nine seconds apart midway through the second period.

Deslauriers got the ball rolling for the visitors when he deflected Jake McCabe's point shot past Condon at 9:00.

That's when Galchenyuk went to work. Playing in his third consecutive game as Montreal's first-line centre, Galchenyuk beat Lehner from point-blank range after a nifty pass from captain Max Pacioretty behind the net at 9:09.

The 22-year-old added his second of the game at 19:16 of the second period. With Montreal on the power play, Galchenyuk was left all alone in front of goal for the easy one-timer.

Buffalo's Rasmus Ristolainen and Gionta were to blame for the blown coverage.

Galchenyuk, with his 11th goal in his last eight games, now leads the Canadiens with 25 goals this season, leapfrogging Pacioretty, who has 24.

It was also Galchenyuk's third consecutive two-goal game and team-leading seventh of the season.

The power-play goal was Montreal's first in its last seven games (previously 0-for-19). The Habs finished 1 for 4 with the man advantage.

Former Habs captain Gionta tied things up for the Sabres at 5:10 of the third period, redirecting Evander Kane's shot between Condon's pads.

Kane now has five points in his last five games. The loss was Buffalo's first against an Atlantic-Division opponent since Oct. 17.

--with files from The Canadian Press