The Sabres Sure Like to Make Things Interesting
Score: Buffalo Sabres 5-3 Vancouver Canucks
Shots: BUF 20-35 VAN
Buffalo Sabres Goals: Thompson 21st (Byram, Power) McLeod 8th SHG (Tuch) Tuch 13th (Byram, Norris) Metsa 1st (Malenstyn, Greenway) Doan 13th EN (Dahlin)
Vancouver Canucks Goals: DeBrusk 11th PPG (Sherwood, Boeser) Pettersson 11th (Boeser, Hronek) Ohgren 3rd (Pettersson, Karlsson)
Plus 1: They Could Not Take Your Pride
The Sabres started this one with some good pressure early and Tage Thompson collected his 21st of the season on Buffalo’s 2nd shot. The attempt from the point was partially blocked and pinballed around before TNT spun and swept it home from 12 feet out. A big early lead for the Blue and Gold. The Sabres then killed a Vancouver penalty with Luukkonen for Buffalo saving their bacon multiple times. The Canucks had a whopping 7 shots on the two minute advantage with UPL making every stop, many when he was seemingly down and out.
Speaking of pinnballing, Peyton Krebs threw a nice hit halfway through the 1st frame. The impact knocked down a Canuck who then took out another Vancouver player for a double whammy. Good stuff from Peyton who is always working hard.
The Canucks got another power play soon after but it was Buffalo that would do the scoring. Shorthanded specialist Alex Tuch collected a loose puck and went on a 2 on 1 break with Ryan McLeod. Alex was just able to sneak a nice pass across to Toothless who beat a stretched out Thatcher Demko for his 8th goal of the year. Tuch collected his 21st helper of the season as he continues to be dangerous on the other team’s man advantage.
The Sabres controlled much of the period and had the 2 goal lead after one. Vancouver had the shots advantage though with that crazy 7 shot power play, 14-9 overall.
Plus 2: Tucked Home From Bo
The 2nd period opened with some back and forth play, a few decent opportunities for both teams. Buffalo’s Jason Zucker drew a hooking call on Vancouver for the Sabres’ first power play. They nearly gave up a shortie with a bad turnover but the shot went off the outside of the net. Buffalo was unable to do anything with the man advantage and the score remained the same.
The crowd came alive again when Alex Tuch scored to push the game to 3-0. Pinching in from the point, Bo Byram aggressively skated in, stickhanding through the face off circle. He then made a sweet back hand dish to Tuch on the other side who collected the puck and scored past Demko for his 13th of the year. Byram has been playing well, contributing on the scoreboard on the regular. He has really asserted himself with Rasmus Dahlin a little quiet lately.
The Sabres had a solid period again and closed out the 2nd with a 3-0 lead. The Canucks still held the shot advantage at 21 -16 with both goalies playing well.
Minus 1: 1st NHL Goal but a Near Collapse!
Luukkonen made a strong save on a partial breakaway at about the 15:00 minute mark. That set up a first ever NHL goal for rookie Zach Metsa not long after. The 4th line was doing their thing, buzzing around with some sustained pressure when Metsa cruised in from the point and beat Demko. You have to feel good for this kid who has filled in admirably in the bottom pairing. His smile was worth the price of admission.
Tage Thompson took a 4 minute high sticking penalty midway through the period and the Sabres had to go to work. Vancouver would score in the first 2 minutes of the penalty to ruin UPL’s shutout bid. Jake DeBrusk would collect his 11th of the year. Buffalo still had to kill the second half of the power play and thankfully they did. But Tage’s recklessness triggered the one goal with the advantage and two more to follow.
The Sabres got more than a little sloppy as the period wore on, almost like they were wishing the game was over. Vancouver was applying the pressure, big time. Elias Pettersson would score and bad, early season memories started to creep in. The wheels really started to come off when Liam Ohgren made it a one goal game soon after. The Canucks were pressing hard and Buffalo was hanging on at 4-3 now. Head Coach Lindy Ruff called a time out. (one goal too late in my opinion) Time wore down to under 2 minutes and Vancouver pulled the goalie. Thankfully for all of us, Josh Doan quickly put the nail in the coffin as he scored into the empty net. A big sigh of relief for Sabreland as Buffalo holds on and wins 5-3. FInal shots were 35-20 as the Canucks had the third period edge at 14-4. Up at one point 4-0, the Sabres need to do a better job at closing out a game they had in the bag. But they are back to their winning ways at least, as they won’t all be pretty and perfect. Metsa got the game winning goal.
Final Thoughts:
Big bounce back win in this game after the 10 game winning streak came to an end. There is your answer. The Sabres had good puck possession time and looked good until the 3rd. They took their foot off the gas and it almost cost them. A “good” reminder that this is still a young team with young team issues to iron out. Buffalo leap frogs the Panthers again in the standings with each team having played the same number of games.
Luukkonen was locked in and hyper-focused tonight. He tracked the puck well and was in good position. UPL bounced back well after his less than stellar performance in Columbus, but he has been very good in four of his last five games. If you are looking for more consistency from Luukkonen, his performances lately have been more steady for sure. Four out of five isn’t bad, just like the dentists who recommend chewing Trident gum. He may have let in 3 in the third, but he did make several big saves throughout and scrambled the team to victory after they lost focus.
The Sabres next play in New York City against the Rangers on Thu, Jan 8th at 7pm.