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Sabres beat defending Stanley Cup Champs

Final Score: Sabres 5 | Blues 2

Shots on Goal: Sabres 33 | Blues 30

Sabres Goal Scorers: Sam Reinhart (12), Johan Larsson (4th), Jack Eichel (19th, 20th), Zemgus Girgensons (5th)

Blues Goal Scorers: Troy Brouwer (1st), Alex Pietrangelo (7th)

Plus-1: We like Eich and Eich likes points

Captain Jack Eichel – having a phenomenal season so far – has officially extended his career-high point streak to 14 games. Tonight, he found the back of the net twice and increased his total number of goals to 20. Eichel has successfully tallied 20+ goals in the five seasons he has played with the Sabres, making him only the third player in Buffalo history to do so after Rick Martin and Thomas Vanek. Eichel currently leads the team with 44 points.

Plus-2: Early scoring makes a big difference

Buffalo found themselves on the scoreboard first with a quick goal in the first 18 seconds of play thanks to Sam Reinhart’s redirection off of Victor Olofsson’s shot. Though St. Louis answered back not long after, Buffalo never trailed during the entire game.

The Sabres are 13-0 when leading after two periods and they truly earned their win tonight with a nice mix of great goaltending, secondary scoring, and keeping a good pace with few careless penalties. With Sunday’s win against Edmonton, this marks the first time the Sabres have won two in a row since mid-October.

Minus-1: Power play struggles remain

Both teams were 0-2 with the man advantage, but the Sabres are long overdue for a special teams improvement. They sit at 15th in the league on the power play and 17.8% with 18 goals. Buffalo is 4-for-56 (ouch) in their games since the start of November.

Next up: The Sabres will host the Nashville Predators this Thursday, December 12th for “Aud Night” at KeyBank Center. Puck drop is at 7 PM.