The Buffalo Sabres were down 2-0 late in the first period, and despite out shooting the Leafs 16-11 at that point, had nothing to show for their efforts. That is, until Morgan Reilly took a tripping penalty, and lit the fuse that would eventually blow the Sabres special teams powder keg sky high.
Buffalo scored three power play goals from Marcus Foligno, Brian Gionta, and Mark Pysyk, and added another shorthanded goal, this one from Ryan O’Reilly, in a 6-4 comeback win over Toronto. The shorty was the second in as many games that O’Reilly’s been involved in (he assisted Evander Kane’s shorthander against the Senators) and it seems that he’ll be a threat to create offense while killing penalties all season.
Mark Pysyk added two assists to go along with his game winning goal, and Brendan Guhle continued his strong showing in camp with two assists tonight despite getting just over 13 minutes of ice time. Guhle is the only player to have dressed for all three preseason games.
As for the other impressive Sabres players, Sam Reinhart tallied three assists on the night, two on the power play, while the other two Buffalo goals came from Nicolas Deslauriers on a beautiful tic-tac-toe play, and David Legwand scored an empty netter to seal the win.
If there was one concern tonight for the Sabres, it was that Robin Lehner again had an up-and-down outing. He stopped 22 of 25 shots for an .880 save percentage, but on the highlight package you can see he gives up some capital-J Juicy Rebounds to go along with some nice sprawling saves. You’d like to see him stop the simple breakaway attempt and be able to control some of his shots in a safer manner rather than kicking them right out in front of his own net.
And yet, Lehner is still recovering from injury and has a mish-mashed defense playing in front of him. We’re still far away from the panic button, folks, but it would be nice to see more consistency from the man who may determine the fate of the Sabres season.
All in all, it’s fun to watch goals, no? And it seems this Sabres team will score plenty of the this season. Buffalo’s next preseason game will take place tonight in Ottawa.