Plenty of offense & a near total collapse, but Sabres hang on for win.
Score: Sabres 6 | Senators 4
Shots: BUF 24 | OTT 38
Buffalo Sabres Goals: Jeff Skinner (4,5), Zemgus Girgensons (2), Alex Tuch (1), Tage Thompson (2,3)
Ottawa Senators Goals: Jakob Chychrun (3), Vladimir Tarasenko (3), Josh Norris (3), Mathieu Joseph (3)
Plus 1: A Strong Start
Tuesday’s game certainly had its up and downs, but let’s start with the positives. The Sabres came out of the gate strong, and put the puck in the net three times in the first period. Okay, so the first goal didn’t count because it went in off Peyton Krebs’ stick which was way high. But the other two did count, and that’s what matters. The team looked sharp offensively, and Jeff Skinner has looked fantastic so far this season as he opened the scoring with his fourth goal of the season. Connor Clifton also got his first point as a Sabre with a nice play on the second goal, feeding the puck to Zemgus Girgensons. Girgensons was able to use Kyle Okposo in front of the net as a screen/distraction for the goaltender, and the team seemed to be firing on all cylinders – especially considering how they’d played Monday night.
Buffalo kept on it in the second period, and again, things seemed to be going well. Skinner potted his second of the night, giving the Sabres a bit of a cushion before Jakob Chychrun got Ottawa on the board. No big deal. Then, Alex Tuch regained the Sabres’ three-goal lead with his much-needed first goal of the season. He also had an assist on Skinner’s first goal, which included a fabulous no-look pass that was a highlight of the night. It’s good to see him get on the board offensively, but he’s stepped up in other ways, too.
To cap things off, Tage Thompson scored his second of the season in the final two minutes of the second period, and the Sabres skated into intermission with a comfortable 5-1 lead.
What could go wrong?
Minus 1: Everything Fell Apart
As it turns out, a lot can go wrong, and it all happened in the last five minutes of the game. The Sabres were –> <– this close to a complete collapse, and that is not how a winning team plays a hockey game. They seemed to phone it in a bit towards the end of the game, and Ottawa came very close to a full comeback. Holding a 5-1 lead with under five minutes to play should pretty much be a guaranteed win, but it wasn’t.
It doesn’t help that Ottawa starting getting very physical in those last few minutes, either. After Tarasenko made it a 5-2 game, a whole bunch of things went down on the ice. After Brady Tkachuk appeared to have taken a headshot to Alex Tuch, the two ended up dropping the gloves moments later. Tuch got called for interference, seemingly because he stuck his butt out to check Tkachuk, while Tkachuk got the instigator, and both got fighting majors. Tkachuk also got a game misconduct.
Less than a minute later, all hell broke loose at center ice. Dylan Cozens and Vladimir Tarasenko wound up tangled up, along with a whole bunch of other players. Somehow, Cozens ended up with an extra 10-minute misconduct to go with his TWO roughing and one slashing minor. Tarasenko got called for two roughing minors. It was a mess of a time, but in the end, Ottawa somehow wound up with a power play. Make it make sense.
And of course… they scored on that power play. And then scored again, exactly 20 seconds later. All of a sudden, what seemed like a worry-free game for the Sabres was way too close for comfort.
Enter: another Buffalo penalty. Sheesh. If you had any fingernails left to bite, they’d be gone by now. Thankfully, this time, it worked out for the Sabres. The Sens pulled Joonas Korpisalo, and Thompson scored the shorthanded empty-netter after a great play by Jordan Greenway to break up Ottawa’s play at the other end of the ice. That insurance goal was huge in those critical final seconds.
Final Thoughts
Genuinely: there was a lot to like about Tuesday’s game for the Sabres, at least in the first 55 or so minutes. That final five minutes, however? Woof. Just absolutely brutal. There’s no excuse for a collapse like that; you just absolutely cannot let something like that happen, especially against a division rival. It’s still very early in the season, yes, but the last thing we want is to be in April and looking back on a game like tonight and say “Man, if only they’d won that one,” or “Man, if only they hadn’t given Ottawa a point.”
They hung on this time, and the two points they’ll bring back over the border are huge. Eleven different Sabres players had at least a point, with Skinner, Tuch & Mittelstadt each recording multiple points. Tuch even had the Gordie Howe hat trick! He had one fight in his NHL career, and now he has two in his last three games. Funny how that happens. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen looked good for most of the game and ended up with 34 saves, even if the end was shaky.
Now, the Sabres have two days off from game action before heading to New Jersey on Friday night.