Buffalo return to parity splitting six-game road trip
Boxscore
Score: Buffalo Sabres 3-1 Seattle Kraken
Shots: BUF 23-24 SEA
Buffalo Sabres Goals: Noah Ostlund (4) (Josh Norris, Alex Tuch), Tage Thompson (16) (Peyton Krebs, Alex Tuch), Zach Benson (2) ENG (Jack Quinn, Ryan McLeod)
Seattle Kraken Goals: Chandler Stephenson (6) PPG (Vince Dunn, Jordan Eberle)
Quick Thoughts
Norris Returns
The injury-struck forward missed a couple of games for maintenance after tweaking something and picking up whatever illness is doing the rounds of the Sabres’ locker room, but came back and returned to his point-scoring ways. He picked up his eighth point of the season and is on a five-game points streak. There was another scare for the center when he lost his footing after setting up a pretty assist for Noah Ostlund’s game-opener and he slammed into the boards heavily. Norris got back to his feet gingerly but didn’t miss any shifts and saw out the game.
Ostlund Error Corrected
Noah Ostlund should never have been sent back down to the Amerks. The young forward was returned to the AHL after the Winnipeg Jets loss with the Sabres choosing to continue carrying three goalies and bringing up Zach Metsa instead, but with injuries to Norris and Jason Zucker meant they needed Ostlund again but could not bring him back until he had played at least one game in Rochester.
In his return to the Sabres lineup and on the second line with Alex Tuch and Norris, he had a tic-tac-toe goal to open the scoring when Tuch sprung Ostlund down the middle, and he played a give-and-go with Norris before slamming home.
Tage Again
Tage Thompson is on a four-game goalscoring streak now after taking advantage of a poor turnover by the Kraken in their own zone. Tuch often doesn’t get enough credit for his forechecking but picked up an assist here, cutting out Dunn’s poor clearance and then showing great patience to wait for Thompson and Peyton Krebs to show up for a 2-on-0 with the former sliding home past Daccord to make it 2-0 halfway through the second period.
Lyon Stays Hot
The Sabres continued with their goalie policy of playing the hot hand, and in this case it was Alex Lyon getting the nod again. The 33-year-old journeyman goaltender was good all night and got beaten just the once in the second period when the Sabres already led by two. It was disappointing that Buffalo gave up another power play goal, just six seconds in as well with Kraken getting bodies in the blue paint and Lyon unsighted.
Lyon did give up one more goal, but it came after the final horn and he seemed to take umbrage to it as well, getting in Winterton’s face who had cheekily tried to get a consolation.
And Another One for Benny
Zach Benson had to wait a long, long time to get his first goal this season despite racking up assists, but now has two in two games after scoring an empty netter to ice the game last night and ensure that the Sabres would pick up their second regulation road win in a row as well. Jack Quinn did the hard work there on that goal, lending credence to the idea that he is actually capable of playing tenacious hockey at times.
At The Horn
The Sabres returned to parity both for the six-game road trip and for the season with their third win in a row, Buffalo’s first three-game winning streak of the season. They were outshot by the Kraken 24-23 in a low event game, with the hosts winning the high danger chances battle 13-11 as well, but between Lyon making timely saves and the Sabres taking advantage of odd-man rushes and opponent turnovers, they won comfortably in the end on a big Won-Buffalo Sunday.
Comment of the Game
BigDadEnergy (props for the handle, by the way) has the comment of the game as once again we meet Buffalo Sabres’ famous nemesis.
So we meet again, .500