(WGR Sports Radio 550) - The Buffalo Sabres found good energy for the third period in Vancouver, and managed to come from behind to beat the Canucks, 3-2.
Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff was so upset with what he saw in Monday’s loss to the Seattle Kraken, he made everybody take Tuesday’s morning skate and used it as a practice, not a game day skate.
Ruff wanted compete in battles, and he wanted players to the net. He got exactly that, as his team played an excellent first period. The whole period, Ruff had players at the net, and it wasn’t just one or two guys. It was pretty much the whole team.
Buffalo came out fast and produced a 3-on-2 immediately when Bo Byram joined the rush, getting the opportunity open down the slot, forcing Thatcher Demko into a big save.
Jiri Kulich won battles in front of the net, getting himself open three different times. Tage Thompson found him very early, and Kulich had another chance, but Demko stopped him on both.
The third chance was the charm in the third period, as JJ Peterka used his speed to get in on the defense and caused a turnover in the corner. He then found Kulich, who made no mistake.
Kulich was only 9-of-20 on faceoffs, but he had two faceoff wins that led to goals. He helped Buffalo leave the first period up 1-0 by winning a draw to Thompson on the top of the circle. It was Peterka, again, cutting off one of the Canucks, thus allowing Thompson to skate free and rip home his 21st past Demko.
That now gives Thompson points in four-consecutive games.
On the game winning goal, Kulich won the draw from the same faceoff dot, the left circle. He won the puck back to Dahlin, who came down the left wall. Peterka backed off just a shade to give Dahlin a passing lane, and Peterka let the puck go as soon as it hit his stick.
After the first period, the Sabres looked out of gas in the second. The first Vancouver goal was a lucky bounce off a lively back wall that went right to Phil Di Giuseppe.
Buffalo was a tired team, and on the second goal at 10:29, once again, the team got caught on an overextended shift to give up a goal. Times on the ice when Elias Pettersson found himself wide-open on a pass from Quinn Hughes were:
- Dennis Gilbert: 1:53
- JJ Peterka: 1:50
- Connor Clifton: 1:35
- Jiri Kulich: 1:30
- Sam Lafferty: 1:08
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen came to the rescue numerous times with huge saves to keep it a one-goal deficit going into the third period.
The team then got its second wind, and played for each other to get the two points. Luukkonen made the save of the game on Conor Garland just as the horn sounded to end the game.
Luukkonen finished with 32 saves after giving up four goals on 18 shots in a 5-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins this past Friday.
I want to mention Tyson Kozak, who doesn’t have the talent that many of the Sabres have, but Ruff used him at left wing with Dylan Cozens and Alex Tuch because he knows exactly what he’s going to get from the kid: A guy that is in, and hard on every battle. He’s a guy that will be at the net all night, and he’s a guy that will do anything to win a hockey game.
Kozak's two blocked shots came at big times in this game, as he played a career-high 16:06 of ice-time.
Buffalo is now 1-1-0 on its four-game Western Conference road trip. The next stop along the way comes in Calgary on Thursday against the Flames.
