Buffalo, NY (WGR 550) – For the fourth straight game the Buffalo Sabres went to overtime and for the first time all season, they went to a shootout. After losing the first three, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen was stellar making five saves in overtime and five more in the shootout to get the 4-3 win. Bo Byram was the only player to score in the shootout scoring on his first career NHL attempt.
The Caps scored two goals on Luukkonen at 1:07 and 2:15 of the first period. On the first goal he coughed up a huge rebound off a Ryan Leonard shot and Dylan Strome converted the rebound. The second goal was a 2-on-0 and no blame whatsoever goes to the Sabres goalie.
He settled down after that, giving up just one more goal in 62:30 minutes of work to earn his first win of the season making 31 saves.
Buffalo did its usual of taking stupid third period penalties as Peyton Krebs and Beck Malenstyn went for tripping and with 3:12 left in regulation, Alex Tuch went for holding. Mattias Samuelsson was huge during all three kills as was Luukkonen in net. They got away with it, but it’s also 6:00 of play where the Sabres are defending and not on the attack. It also keeps their best offensive players on the bench.
After falling behind 2-0, the Sabres needed someone to step up and they did. Jordan Greenway and Jason Zucker went to work behind the net, won the battles and found Tage Thompson in the slot to make it 2-1.
Buffalo didn’t stop working and Tuch tied it when he and Josh Doan came down the slot with speed passing back and forth.
Saturday was Isak Rosen’s 16th NHL game and by far it was his best. He showed a lot of confidence including when Jack Quinn set him up and he snapped home his first NHL goal to make it 3-2 after the first period.
In overtime Thompson, Tuch and Rasmus Dahlin all got caught in their own zone. Tuch was on the ice for 2:10 while Dahlin was on for 3:10 and Thompson for 3:11. Luukkonen stood tall through the barrage.
In the shootout, Thompson, Quinn, Tuch and Dahlin all missed until Byram scored. All five Capitals missed giving the Sabres points in 8-of-9 games going 5-1-3. That’s a points percentage of .722. They are also 5-0-1 in their last six at home.
Lindy Ruff always says you’ll be OK if you win two and lose one. They have played four three-game segments. So far they’re 0-3-0, 2-1-0, 2-0-1 and 1-0-2, so they’ve reached their goal in three out of four segments.
The Utah Mammoth are in town on Tuesday.