Buffalo jumped into a two-goal lead, but hapless third period breaks their back
Score: Buffalo Sabres 2-5 Utah Mammoth
Shots: BUF 19-37 UTA
Buffalo Sabres Goals: Rosen (2, 3)
Utah Mammoth Goals: DeSimone (1), Peterka (5), Crouse (4), Schmaltz (10), Keller (7)
Plus 1: Neat & Tidy
The Sabres started their four-game road trip off on a positive note with a pretty tight first period. The home team were pumped up but for the most part Buffalo stayed nimble, dodged the tusks and stayed away from the big feet.
Goaltender Colten Ellis showed that his performance in the lone game he played for us so far was no fluke making some timely saves, keeping his feet active and moving well side-to-side.
The Amerks slipped to a 6-4 defeat with virtually their entire top power play unit (Rosen, Ostlund, Jones, Dunne) all at the parent club, with Isak Rosen making the most of the opportunity to notch his second Sabres goal, though the credit should go to Jack Quinn for making the play and putting the puck in the blue ice. Still, kudos to the youngster for going to the goal despite the likely punishment you will have coming your way, and the puck deflected off his skate to finally beat Vejmelka in goal.
It’s never all positive with the Sabres though, with their power play drought continuing despite almost four minutes of the man advantage including seven seconds of 5-on-3. The first period ended with Utah leading in scoring chances 7-3, 22-14 on shot attempts and 12-8 in shots on goal.
Plus 2: Keeping Things Clean
Remember when we thought we had a dynamite kids line last season with Quinn, Dylan Cozens and Zach Benson? I do, because I had made an extremely lofty bold prediction about the trio collectively scoring 200pts. Well, we might have slightly different kids line now, with Quinn, Noah Ostlund and Rosen combining very well on the Sabres third line and Rosen’s second goal of the night was a thing of beauty. Quinn drove to the net, laid off the puck to Rosen, he then left a drop pass for Ostlund who squared it back for a wide open Rosen to slam home into the open net from the slot, leaving Vejmelka in splits.
Sabres kept up the pressure after the second, with Josh Dunne coming oh so close to taking advantage of a turnover in the Utah defensive zone. Vejmelka made the save, then both former Utah players Doan and Michael Kesselring tried to pounce on the rebounds but the Mammoth somehow kept the score at two-nothing.
It would prove to be a pivotal moment in the game, as just a few minutes later as Utah pulled one back with a fortunate bounce off the wall from a misplaced pass falling to East Amherst native Nick DeSimone cranking a slapshot past Ellis into the far corner of the net, 2-1.
DeSimone wasn’t done either, as he then hit another shot off the iron with the period winding down and the Mammoth pressing the Sabres higher up the ice boldly leaving gaps behind them. With thirty seconds to go it looked like Quinn found one of those seams. His pass to the right boards was met by Ostlund who got a shot off on goal, Vejmelka saved and then Quinn had a chance on the rebound which was also saved.
Utah still led in all statistical categories but the scoreline – 13-10 on scoring chances, and 23-16 on shots on goal. Remarkably, the Sabres top line of Tage Thompson – Ryan McLeod – Alex Tuch was yet to register a shot on goal after forty minutes played.
Minus 1: Things Fall Apart, Catastrophically
As the fates would have it, at least one former player would have to score against their old team. JJ Peterka was unfortunately the one, registering his first shot on goal of the night less than a minute into the third period to level the game.
He didn’t end there either, playing provider for Crouse to sneak one in on Ellis’ near post over the goalie’s shoulder, and suddenly Utah had come back from 2-0 down to lead 3-2. The worst part was that the Sabres weren’t necessarily doing anything wrong either, but that’s how the game goes sometimes.
It got worse. A turnover in their own defensive zone ended up with Schmaltz getting the puck in the circle and he made no mistake beating Ellis. The Utah top line have been in sparkling form all season long, and got their just rewards.
Under ten minutes to go, Utah led 4-2 and 30-19 in shots. Five minutes left to play, score still 4-2.. and the shot margin was now 35-19. At 2:40 to play Ellis went to the bench and the shots were still at 35-19. Byram made an empty net save at 1:27, shots remained at 35-19. Keller eventually got the empty net goal at 26 seconds to go, and the Sabres were still on 19 shots. Final score was 5-2, and you guessed it, the Sabres ended with 19 shots on goal.
Final Thoughts
So with the Sabres two goals down, they managed no shots on goal in closing stages of the third period. In the preview Jedi had talked about the leaders on this team needing to step up when so many players are out of the lineup. Needless to say, none of the leaders stood up to be counted tonight. Zero shots from that top line is unforgivable.
Dunne missing getting that third goal came back to bite the Sabres in a big way. Tomorrow Buffalo play one the most explosive teams in the league, and have learned to their own detriment multiple times against the Avs that there is no lead safe against them. The Sabres are learning brutal lessons about how they cannot stop working in the middle of games and expect to cruise to wins – they do not possess that level of elite talent to be able to do that.
There appears to be no stopping this lead balloon right now, no matter who is in goal for them. Next, Buffalo stay on the road and are at the electric Colorado Avalanche tomorrow night.