Quinn scores twice in Sabres win against Sharks

BUFFALO --Jack Quinn scored twice to help the Buffalo Sabres defeat the San Jose Sharks 6-3 at KeyBank Center on Sunday.

The 21-year-old rookie has nine points (five goals, four assists) in his past eight games.
"You kind of always want to create offense as offensive players, but I think just a learning and understanding of a lot of offense comes from being good defensively, and sometimes getting in deep, you'll be able to get it back down there closer to the net," Quinn said. "So just being a little mature like that helps."
Jeff Skinner and Tage Thompson each had a goal and an assist, and Dylan Cozens had three assists for the Sabres (11-13-1), who are 4-2-1 in their past seven games. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 26 saves.
"We've been talking a lot here the past couple days about closing games, and I thought we did a really good job of doing that, so it's a great team win," Buffalo defenseman Rasmus Dahlin said. "The 'Kid Line' (Quinn, Cozens and JJ Peterka) played unreal. We had some highlight goals again. It was a great win. It was fun to be a part of, great crowd."

Nick Bonino and Oskar Lindblom each scored his first goal of the season, and Aaron Dell made 32 saves for the Sharks (8-16-4), who are 1-5-1 in their past seven.
"I just thought they were out-everything us," San Jose coach David Quinn said. "I thought they were outskating us, they were outhitting us, they were doing everything better than we were. At some point in time, you've got to say enough is enough and there's got to be pushback. We've just got to have more pushback in our game. … I thought we had that for an extended period of time, but we've lost that along the way here and we've got to get back to playing like that."
Thompson gave Buffalo a 1-0 lead at 9:19 of the first period when he one-timed a pass from Dahlin in the left circle on the power play.
Bonino tied it 1-1 at 13:40 from the slot after Luke Kunin held in a clearing attempt at the right point.
"Nice to get a puck in that area. I haven't had too many shots from there," Bonino said. "That was a great play all around from the guys to get that over to me. Yeah, I'd love to see more go in, for sure."
Kevin Labanc put the Sharks ahead 2-1 at 16:19, beating Luukkonen glove side from the left circle on the power play.
Peterka scored 16 seconds into the second period to tie it 2-2, receiving a stretch pass from Cozens and scoring on a breakaway.
"The start of the second period was big," Sabres coach Don Granato said. "What an unbelievable pass by Dylan. Peterka made it look easy taking it out of his skates on the fly. I believe we started with great energy and just kept getting better as a result. I thought all of the lines were participants in that."

Skinner gave the Sabres a 3-2 lead at 4:21, skating down the right wing, cutting toward the slot and shooting into an open net after Dell was run into by Sharks defenseman Nick Cicek.
Quinn pushed it to 4-2 at 13:45 from the right hash marks after he toe-dragged Radim Simek on the power play. He then made it 5-2 at 11:23 of the third period on a 2-on-1 with Cozens.
"I don't really know how to describe it," Quinn said of his line. "I think it's just a lot of chemistry and like I said, me and JJ played together last year (in the American Hockey League), and I'm really familiar with 'Cozey.' He's such an easy guy to play with, he makes us better. It's just clicking and we're continuing to get better each game, which is a good sign."
Lindblom scored with a backhand from a sharp angle to cut it to 5-3 at 11:52, but Alex Tuch shot into an empty net at 16:37 for the 6-3 final.
"They outcompeted us for a lot of the night, and that can't happen," Bonino said. "That's something that you can't really say about us to this point in the year. It's very rare for that to happen, and tonight things kind of got away from us."
NOTES: The Sharks have allowed five power-play goals on nine opportunities in the past two games. They allowed six goals on 71 opportunities in their first 26 games this season. … San Jose head athletic trainer Ray Tufts worked his 2,000th NHL game. … Dahlin had two assists to give him 21 in 24 games this season. It is the second-fewest games needed to reach 20 assists by a defenseman in Buffalo history, behind John Van Boxmeer (21 games in 1981-82). … Cozens recorded his third straight multipoint game and has nine points (four goals, five assists) during a four-game point streak.