Cozens leads the charge, but Sabres fall in OT.
Score: Buffalo Sabres 3 | Vancouver Canucks 4 (OT)
Shots: BUF 34 | VAN 22
Buffalo Sabres Goals: Bowen Byram (4), Dylan Cozens (5), Alex Tuch (8)
Vancouver Canucks Goals: Jake DeBrusk (7), Conor Garland (7,8), Pius Suter (8)
Minus 1: Penalty Trouble
After Bowen Byram’s goal late in the first period – which came on a tip off a real nice shot from Zach Benson in front of the net – the Sabres remained up for over a period’s worth of play. DeBrusk tied it for the Canucks late in the second, and Vancouver really seemed to feed off that momentum as they found themselves with puck possession and plenty of high-quality chances late in the period. The momentum swing got even worse when Owen Power got tagged for interference with less than a minute left in the middle frame, but Buffalo was able to get out of the period unscathed – and tied.
But then, Dylan Cozens gets called for holding early in the third period. On his way into the penalty box, he slams his stick on the glass and garners an extra minor for unsportsmanlike conduct. (Perhaps he made a comment, too – we don’t really know for sure.) In a tight, tied game, all of a sudden now the Sabres have to kill off four minutes of PK time — not ideal.
It takes less than a minute for Conor Garland to score on the advantage, but the Sabres are able to kill the second minor off. Not long after, though, the Canucks double their lead. All of sudden, the momentum has swung in the wrong direction and it’s easy to think the game feels out of reach at this point.
Plus 1: The Rally
To Cozens’ credit, and the credit of the entire team, they pushed hard after those penalties and it paid off. Cozens did some great work in the resulting minutes, first cutting the lead with his goal at 13:18. Less than two minutes later, Cozens’ shot gets deflected in front by Alex Tuch, and it’s a brand new game. Despite the two penalties earlier in the period, the Sabres outshot the Canucks by a whopping 18-6 margin in the third period.
Final Thoughts
After that spurt of energy and goals by the Canucks, the Sabres are lucky to skate out of KeyBank Center with one point on Friday night. For a while there, it certainly seemed as if they were going to come away with nothing.
There’s little time to rest now, as Buffalo heads to New York (okay, that sounds weird) to take on the Islanders Saturday night. The good news? The Islanders also lost in overtime on Friday (and blew a lead, to boot) and are coming off a road game into the back-to-back.
Sam Lafferty suffered a lower-body injury in Friday’s game and did not return. Head coach Lindy Ruff said after the game that Laffety was likely out for Saturday. Tyson Kozak has been recalled from the AHL’s Rochester Americans, so we may well see him make his NHL debut on Saturday night. Kozak has six points, including five goals, in 14 AHL games this season. He is a combined -6 in his last three games and has not registered a point since November 1 but is generally considered an underrated prospect; he’s also one that assistant coach Seth Appert is plenty familiar with.