Devils defeat Sabres in first game without Palmieri, Zajac

BUFFALO --Jesper Boqvist scored the tiebreaking goal in the third period to lift the New Jersey Devils to a 6-3 win against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center on Thursday.

Pavel Zacha scored two power-play goals, and Jack Hughes, Yegor Sharangovich and Janne Kuokkanen each had a goal and two assists for the Devils (14-18-6), who had lost their past four games (0-2-2). Aaron Dell made 24 saves for his first win of the season.
"We're a young team and we have to find a way to win these games, and we finally did," Zacha said. "Third period's very important, especially with a tied game, and I think we worked hard, played the same way. We didn't change anything in the system. We just kept working and we scored those goals and won the game."

New Jersey was playing its first game since trading forwards Kyle Palmieri and Travis Zajac to the New York Islanders on Wednesday.
"It's never easy to see guys traded, especially guys like Trav and 'Palms'," Zacha said. "They've been here with me since I started (drafted in 2015) so you never want to see guys like that go. But we knew what team we had here today and we had to work hard and go win a game."
Victor Olofsson, Tage Thompson and Jeff Skinner scored, and Linus Ullmark made 32 saves for the Sabres (9-24-6), whose five-game point streak ended (3-0-2).
Boqvist gave the Devils a 4-3 lead when he got to the rebound of a wraparound attempt at 8:45 of the third period.
"The third period, the winning goal, we had the puck on our stick," Sabres coach Don Granato said. "We, on the draw, had the puck on our stick multiple times and didn't exit the zone. It ended up in our net. So they were hungrier than we were tonight. That's a tough game when your opponent's hungrier than you, and that was the case."

Olofsson took a pass from defenseman Henri Jokiharju in the low slot to give the Sabres a 1-0 lead 53 seconds into the first period.
Zacha backhanded a rebound on the power play to tie it 1-1 at 2:06 and scored at 3:47 from the top of the left circle on the power play for a 2-1 lead. Hughes extended the lead to 3-1 at 16:04.
Thompson made it 3-2 on the power play at 11:56 of the second period. Skinner tied it 3-3 when he backhanded a loose puck at the right side of the net at 18:21.
"I think that that's just a sign of us having some more confidence that we've generated over the past week and a half or so," Sabres forward Kyle Okposo said. "Just making little, subtle plays, 'Tommer' gets a big one on the power play there. 'Skinny' gets one in front to tie the game. But you got to try to use that, 3-3 game, you don't have a good 40 minutes and you've got a chance to win a game, we've just got to come out and have a better third, and we just didn't have it tonight."
Sharangovich made it 5-3 from the right circle at 18:17, and Kuokkanen scored an empty-net goal at 19:28 for the 6-3 final.
"Really liked our third period where we generated some good opportunities," Devils coach Lindy Ruff said. "We didn't give up a lot. We only gave up a couple of shots. We played the game the right way, put pucks in deep. We got rewarded. The Boqvist goal was get the puck to the net, it went off the goaltender's pad, and came right back out and 'Bo' put it in the back of the net."

NOTES:Dell is the fourth Devils goalie to win a game this season (Mackenzie Blackwood,
Eric Comrie
, Scott Wedgewood). It's the first time they have had at least four goalies with a win since the 1991-92 season (Craig Billington, Martin Brodeur, Chad Erickson, Chris Terreri). … Sabres forward Taylor Hall (precautionary) was held out of the lineup for the second straight game with the NHL Trade Deadline on Monday. … Rasmus Dahlin had an assist on Skinner's goal for his 100th NHL point (16 goals, 84 assists) in his 180th NHL game. He is the second-fastest Sabres defenseman to reach the milestone after making his NHL debut with the team (Phil Housley, 106 games). … Dahlin, who turns 21 on April 13, is the youngest Sweden-born defenseman in NHL history to reach the milestone and the second-youngest Sabres defenseman (Housley; 19 years, 273 days).