It wasn’t pretty or technically sound or all that well-played on the whole, but the Sabres found a way to earn a 3-2 win against Minnesota.
BUFFALO — If there’s a universal truth about the game of hockey it’s that it’s not always going to be a beautifully played game, but there can be individual beauty contained within the game itself.
That’s a good description of how the Sabres came away with a 3-2 win against the Minnesota Wild on Friday night: Ugly on the whole, but with individual efforts that helped pave the way for a victory.
Finding the lead story in this one could lead you down many paths.
There was Devon Levi shining in a game that had no discernable flow. The rookie goalie made 33 saves including a dazzling stop against Wild superstar Kirill Kaprizov and looked as calm and cool as one could be in a game where there was more traffic around the net than at rush hour in your favorite city with terrible gridlock.
You had JJ Peterka set up Jeff Skinner for a breakaway goal late in the second period and then score what wound up being the game-winner in the third after a slick setup by Tage Thompson who netted his 100th career assist on the play. For Peterka it was his sixth goal and for Skinner his team-leading seventh of the season. Henri Jokiharju also scored his second goal of the year.
Then you had players who didn’t land on the scoresheet but played dynamite hockey, especially late in the game. Casey Mittelstadt stepped up in a big way to control the puck during his shifts to force the flow of the game back into the Minnesota end. He was a force in puck battles along the boards all game and showed the kind of competitiveness fans should get used to seeing from here on out. Really impressive work of which none of it shows up in the box score.
“A good grind there by the guys, especially at the end there,” Skinner said. “Some guys that beat some long shifts in the D zone and grinded it out. Obviously, Levs made some big saves. But, yeah, I think obviously maybe not our best game but found a way to get a win, which is the important thing. So, try to pick up some of the positives and take them into tomorrow (against Pittsburgh).”
A few more notes on a win below the fold…
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2022 first-round pick (ninth overall) Matthew Savoie made his NHL debut Friday night and…it could’ve gone a lot better. Savoie made a couple of rough passes in an effort to try and get a play started that turned into the Wild taking the puck away and creating their own opportunities.
Savoie played 3:55 and didn’t see the ice again after his final shift ended with 4:54 to play in the second period. He was credited with one shot attempt that was blocked and nothing else in his stat line. He was on a line with Peyton Krebs and Lukas Rousek, but in a game that was haphazard with special teams and a close score, mistakes just couldn’t be made.
It’s not a great first NHL impression for Savoie after playing so well with Rochester in the AHL. It’ll be interesting to see what the next step is for him. My gut says he’ll get into another game to show it was a rough one-off night full of jitters in a difficult matchup, however the Sabres will have a roster crunch coming imminently with players getting healthy and Rochester in desperate need of healthy players. This is where the inability to send Savoie to Rochester this season really stings. He showed he can play well there and produce, but the CHL rules supersede his situation.
Perhaps more practice time in Buffalo and a few more games would do him well before possibly (likely) sending him to Canada’s World Junior Championship camp. Shipping him back to juniors right now would require deft handling from Kevyn Adams and Don Granato.
One unsung player who showed a lot of maturity on Friday night was Lukas Rousek.
Rousek played 13:14 and saw regular rotation in the third period as the Sabres tried to hold down the lead. Rousek attacked Wild puck carriers and frustrated them on the forecheck. This was an important positive game for Rousek because things haven’t gone so great for him here in camp and in previous games.
“He knows the details, he knows the situation,” Granato said. “Very well aware of what needs to be done in the situation and the personnel on the other team. He was in shot lanes, was strong on pucks, so I was very comfortable with him and have become more and more comfortable with him specifically in tough situations.”
The versatility Rousek has being able to play the way he did against the Wild while also having offensive skills enough to be a scorer in Rochester make him an intriguing depth option. Building off Friday’s game could go a long way.
If you watched the game, either as a Sabres or Wild fan, you probably got a bit frustrated with the officiating and you should just know you’re not alone.
The lack of consistency in calls as well as the torching of the rule book in the latter half of the third period made it sort of like a playoffs rule book with the exception of how a lot of egregious stuff was just looked past throughout the game.
If I tracked penalties that were missed the list would be very long so when things got a bit punchier late in the game, it was more than understandable. Players all understand officials have a job to do just the same as they do and everyone understands that sometimes guys have bad nights, but nothing gets everyone in the building more upset than inconsistent calls (or non-calls). The Sabres specifically have been on the odd end of some discrepancies this season and had some very strange turns go against them early on and they’re likely not the only team that’s occurred with this year.
These kinds of things usually balance out as the year goes on, but it’s clear early on things have gone against them more than they’ve gone in their favor. For young teams like Buffalo, that can manifest into frustration really quickly if unchecked, but they’ve done as well as they can in the face of that difficulty.