After a three-game losing streak that followed a three-game win streak, the Sabres once again have won three in a row after a 3-2 shootout win versus Calgary.
BUFFALO — There was a former Buffalo Sabres coach, maybe it was Don Granato or Phil Housley or maybe even Dan Bylsma, who said you want to avoid the extreme highs and lows going through the game-to-game schedule. It comes from wanting to stay at an even-keel and not allowing yourself to get too high on successes nor too low on losses during a long season.
And yet, here we are with the Sabres winners of three in a row yet again after a 3-2 shootout win against the Calgary Flames on Saturday afternoon. It’s their second three-game win streak of the season and the previous one came just before the three-game losing skid that preceded this current three-game upswing.
At the very least, riding these waves in the early part of the season can indicate they’re figuring things out and finding a groove. Based on their wins against Ottawa, the New York Rangers, and now Calgary that seems to be right.
Saturday’s win wasn’t completely pretty, but it had enough of the good as well as enough of the good-enough-to-make-up-for-the-bad to allow you to think that they might just have things figured out in a way that works well.
“I think that’s the most important thing right now, to find that level of game that we need to play,” Sabres goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen said. “Not every game is going to be perfect but kind of find a way to battle through those games that we don’t feel as comfortable as we want to or as good as we want to. As a good team, you need to push through those games too… You have to be able to trust your own game and the last three games we’ve been doing that.”
More from a win that tested the Sabres’ mettle ahead.
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Out of the good things the Sabres did on Saturday, their first period play ranks up there. It was a continuation of the dominating play they had Thursday night in Manhattan against the Rangers.
Buffalo grabbed a 2-0 lead with goals from Zach Benson and a power play marker from Tage Thompson. They dominated in scoring chances (7-1 at 5-on-5 according to Natural Stat Trick) despite shots on goal at 5-on-5 being 6-6. They had the Flames bottled up completely and denied them virtually any chance at a quality opportunity.
With two-goal leads can come complacency and when mixed with the opponent looking to get back into the game, you’ve got conflict. The Flames pushed back but the Sabres were right there with them continuing to go at them. Calgary was shutout on an early power play opportunity in the period and their power play went 0-for-3 in the game.
After allowing two power play goals in their 2-1 loss to Detroit in the third game of their three-game losing streak, the Sabres penalty killers have gone 10-for-10 in their opportunities. Mix that in with the power play scoring goals regularly and looking more and more dangerous game to game, the special teams finding a groove creates a major turning point for the team.
“I feel like everyone has been putting in the work with it,” Bo Byram said. “Whether it’s watching video, talking to the coaches—whatever it be—really trying to get things sorted out and it’s a good thing to have things starting to come together. But we’ve got to be doing that year-round, so it’s a good start but we’ve got to keep that going down the stretch here.”
Thompson’s goal in the first period was as classic of a Thompson goal as you can get: A one-timer slap shot that’s virtually unstoppable by any goalie. Flames starter Dan Vladar wasn’t able to and if you watch a slow-motion replay of the goal, it helps you understand just how hard and fast Thompson’s shot is. You can see Vladar move his glove to try for it, but it moves after the puck is by him into the net. It’s a freakshow kind of thing. Getting the power play to be successful like that is vital.
“I honestly thought our special teams have been good kind of from the get-go,” Thompson said. “A little snakebit and had some good looks, that happens. It’s kind of easy to get frustrated. You start to try to make things cuter than they need to be and we’ve had a lot of good looks that didn’t go in… When we got one, you get a little confidence and now things are starting to roll for us.”
The penalty kill did strong work in regulation, but it was in overtime where they earned their stars. The Sabres had to kill off a brutal penalty for too many men on the ice when Thompson picked up a puck in the offensive zone after a horrible Flames turnover and passed it back to the blue line to Dahlin who blitzed off the bench to jump into the play. Only he did it far too quickly while Byram was still getting to the bench for the change.
The final 1:20 of overtime had the Sabres PK trying to send the game to the shootout. Full marks to Jordan Greenway and the rest of the penalty kill unit (Clifton, Bryson among them) for preventing the Flames from stealing the second point.
Classically, giving up a late second period goal and then giving up a tying goal in the third period and taking a penalty in overtime would’ve provided breaking points for the Sabres. We saw it happen at home against Los Angeles and on the road in Pittsburgh and many times in previous seasons before this. But winning a game like this where the opponent got rolling downhill is a good sign.
“You look at, once they tie it, what’s really important is getting a point and playing the game the right way, and after that is try to get that second point,” Ruff said. “I thought, you look at overtime, you don’t want to get caught the way we got caught changing, but our killers did a great job, we got a big save out of UPL, and then a huge goal from JJ in the shootout. And then UPL again shut them out.”
The 2-0 lead was good, but Calgary got one back later on in the second period in what was a schemozzle of a situation. Calgary’s Justin Kirkland and Buffalo’s Dennis Gilbert got into a bit of a scuffle in front of the benches and tussled on the ice while a couple officials went in to separate them. All the while, Calgary broke into the Buffalo zone and kept playing while Sabres players had their attention on what was happening at the benches.
The whistle never stopped play, and the Flames kept attacking and Matt Coronato put one past Luukkonen. Penalties were handed out to Kirkland and Gilbert, but the goal stood. Lindy Ruff said after the game that officials told him the goal went in before their hand went up for the penalties.
The penalty was Gilbert’s third minor of the day and it ultimately led to the Flames scoring and sparking their rally into the third period. From that point on, Gilbert played three more shifts for 1:43 of ice time. He was up against his former team and was looking to make an impact physically, but that situation is tough. Although they’ve won three straight games since Gilbert and Connor Clifton re-entered the lineup, it would stand to reason we may see one of Mattias Samuelsson or Henri Jokiharju back in the lineup Monday afternoon against Montréal.
Byram and Rasmus Dahlin shouldered the load on defense after Ruff shortened the defensive bench a bit in the third. Byram played an astounding 32:34 and Dahlin played 28:28. Owen Power was the only other defenseman with over 20 minutes (20:42) while Jacob Bryson was just over 18 minutes (18:01). Clifton checked in at 14:07 and Gilbert had a team-low 10:19. The Sabres are fortunate to have three top-tier defenders to handle things when others are having a tough game, but life is a lot easier for everyone on the blue line when they’re all locked-in.
The Sabres will aim to win four straight games on Monday for the first time since January 2023 when they won five in a row. That season saw them finish one point out of the playoffs and if the postseason is going to become a serious discussion this year, running off an extended winning streak will go a long way towards that.
“When you get on a roll, you want to stay on a roll,” Ruff said. “You want to find a way to win hockey games.”