Game Notes: March 17 at Buffalo Sabres

LAST GAME
The Blackhawks fell to the Jets 6-2 on Thursday night at Bell MTS Place. Brandon Saad and Patrick Sharp were the goal scoreres for Chicago. Anton Forsberg made three saves in the loss and J-F Berube made 30 saves in relief.
VS. SABRES
Chicago holds a 54-52-13-1 mark all-time against Buffalo, including an 19-34-7-0 record on the road. The Blackhawks defeated the Sabres 3-2 in overtime in the first contest of the season on Dec. 8. Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane share the Chicago lead with 15 career points (8G, 7A) each against Buffalo. Berube has a 0-0-1 record against Buffalo in his career.
O'CAPTAIN
The Blackhawks last played on St. Patrick's Day in 2015, when Toews registered a four-point (2G, 2A) performance to lead the team to a 4-1 win over the Islanders at the United Center. The Winnipeg native has notched eight games with 4 or more points in his career.
PATRICK'S DAY
Sharp has tallied three assists in four games for the Blackhawks on St. Patrick's Day while, Kane has one assist in three career appearances on St. Patrick's Day.
HOMETOWN VILLAIN
Over his last three games against his hometown team, Kane has registered five points (2G, 3A) in two multi-point outings. Since his debut in 2007-2008, the Blackhawks have a 13-2-0 record against the Sabres.
ONE-TIMERS
- Saad netted a goal 11 seconds into the game against Winnipeg, the fastest goal to start a game this season for Chicago. Saad now has at least 30 points (16G, 14A) for the fifth consecutive season in his career. - Sharp scored his ninth goal of the year on Thursday. He now has three points (2G, 1A) in his last four games. It was his 19th point (9G, 10A) of the season. - Kane extended his point streak (1G, 3A) to three games with an assist on Thursday night. He now has six separate point streaks of three or more games this season. He leads the Blackhawks with 67 points (25G, 42A) on the year. - Nick Schmaltz added an assist against the Jets. He ranks third for Chicago with 47 points (20G, 27A) this season. - Connor Murphy picked up his 10th assist of the year. It was his 11th point of the campaign. - John Hayden registered his 13th point (4G, 9A) of the season with an assist. - Erik Gustafsson matched a career-high and led the team with five shots on goal. - Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook shared the team lead with three blocked shots each.

THREE OPPONENTS TO WATCH:
C Ryan O'Reilly: O'Reilly ranks second for the Sabres with 50 points (19G, 31A) on the season. He has reached the 50-point plateau in five consecutive seasons, and has tallied at least a point in five of his last eight performances. His 1,092 faceoff wins are the most in the league this year. He is the only NHL player to win at least 1,000 faceoffs in each of the last three seasons.
RW Jason Pominville: The native of Repentigny, Quebec has tallied 690 career points (273G, 417A) in 975 games, including 21 points (12G, 9A) in 26 games against Chicago. Over his last 10 games, the 35-year-old has registered eight points (3G, 5A) with two multi-point games.
LW Evan Rodrigues: The Toronto native extended his point streak (2G, 3A) to a career-long three games with a two-assist outing against the Maple Leafs on Thursday night. He has recorded career bests in games played (36), goals (6) and assists (12) during the 2018-18 campaign.