Panthers become first to clinch playoff berth with win against Sabres
Huberdeau sets single-season record for most points in Florida history
By
Heather Engel
NHL.com Independent Correspondent
"They should be proud of themselves," Florida coach Andrew Brunette said. "I think that's the No. 1 goal heading into the season, and we have one of them. Lots of hockey left, but let's enjoy the moment. It's been an interesting 70 games, and they deserve every ounce of credit they are getting."
Jonathan Huberdeau scored to set the Panthers single-season points record, Anthony Duclair scored two goals, and Spencer Knight made 26 saves for Florida (48-15-6).
Huberdeau has 97 points (24 goals, 73 assists) this season, one more than Aleksander Barkov had in 2018-19.
"He's a tremendous, tremendous player and he deserves it the way he's been playing," Barkov said of Huberdeau. "It couldn't happen to a better guy. We still have a lot of games left, so it's going to be a lot of fun to see where he's going to end up. I'm just lucky to be his teammate and to play with him and see him do his thing."
Jeff Skinner had a goal and an assist, and Casey Mittelstadt had two assists for the Sabres (25-34-11), whose point streak ended at eight games (5-0-3). Dustin Tokarski made 35 saves.
Buffalo will be eliminated from playoff contention if the Washington Capitals defeat the Minnesota Wild on Sunday.
"I thought we had a good first and then the second, they've got a real skilled team, the margin for error is really, really small," Skinner said. "Pretty much zero. Just a couple miscues. Obviously, 'Ticker,' I think he played really well for us, he made some big saves. But yeah, one or two mistakes against them, they make you pay. That's the type of team they have. That's kind of what happened there in the second. Then our response in the third was pretty good, but obviously it's just not enough."
Kyle Okposo gave the Sabres a 1-0 lead at 17:13 of the first period by deflecting Mattias Samuelsson's shot past Knight.
Huberdeau tied it 1-1 at 6:18 of the second. Claude Giroux got to a loose puck after Buffalo defenseman Jacob Bryson slipped and fed Huberdeau in the slot.
Anton Lundell put the Panthers ahead 2-1 at 15:55.
Duclair then made it 3-1 at 17:01 before scoring 57 seconds into the third period to extend the lead to 4-1.
"I think we have enough talent in the room to score goals and everyone's working hard, not just expecting that we're going to score goals," Barkov said. "The talent is there, but if you're not working, nothing's going to happen. I think everyone has the talent and has the work ethic to score those goals. Yeah, we've been scoring a lot, but at the same time, we need to be a little better in the defensive zone as well."
Skinner made it 4-2 with a power-play goal at 8:25. The goal was originally waved off for goalie interference, but Sabres coach Don Granato challenged the play, and the call was reversed after a video review determined that Florida defenseman Ben Chiarot caused Mittelstadt to make contact with Knight.
Thompson scored another power-play goal to cut it to 4-3 at 10:19.
"I liked our response in the third," Okposo said. "It was an emotional game Friday (a 4-3 win against the Nashville Predators). A very emotional game. The last time we had one of those we went out to Edmonton and laid an egg (a 6-1 loss March 17). I thought tonight we did a good job of coming out and being ready to play. With a young team, that's not an easy thing to do, but for the most part I was happy. Obviously, in the second period, we just backed off. We just stopped skating, stopped going after them. Other than that, I thought we did OK."
MacKenzie Weegar scored on a 5-on-3 power play at 18:25 for the 5-3 final.
NOTES: Florida has had at least 40 shots in seven of their past eight games. ... The Panthers earned their 23rd comeback win this season, second-most in the NHL behind the New York Rangers (24). ... Florida defenseman Radko Gudas played his 600th NHL game. ... Defenseman Robert Hagg played the Sabres for the first time since he was traded to the Panthers on March 20. ... Buffalo forward Alex Tuch got his 100th NHL assist on Skinner's goal. ... Skinner has nine points (five goals, four assists) in his past eight games.
