Sabres score 7, surge past Golden Knights

BUFFALO -- Jeff Skinner and Owen Power each had a goal and two assists for the Buffalo Sabres in a 7-2 win against the Vegas Golden Knights at KeyBank Center on Saturday.

Dylan Cozens scored two short-handed goals, and Casey Mittelstadt had a goal and an assist for the Sabres (29-28-4), who have won five of six. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 22 saves.

The Sabres remained 10 points behind the Tampa Bay Lightning for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.

“I'm not worried it's too late,” Skinner said. “What are you going to do worrying about the past? So, for us, we keep moving forward. We got another game (Sunday against the Winnipeg Jets). Quick turnaround. We try and keep the good things in our game going and keep it going.”

Logan Thompson made 28 saves for the Golden Knights (33-21-7), who are 2-6-1 in their past nine games.

“How do we rebound? We need the healthy group of our lineup, which is our [defense] corps that is the strength of our team, to play better,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “To execute better and to lead this team. Goaltenders are healthy, they need to play better and lead this team. That’s where it should start, that area back. Those are the guys that are healthy. We’ll piece together some forward lines hopefully to get enough offense, but we’ve got to stay in the game and be better back there.”

Skinner gave Buffalo a 1-0 lead at 1:55 of the first period. He stole the puck from William Karlsson at the top of the right circle before spinning in the high slot and beating Thompson stick side.

Cozens scored 54 seconds into the second period to make it 2-0, winning a race to the loose puck in the neutral zone and breaking in for a short-handed goal.

Brendan Brisson cut it to 2-1 on the same power play at 1:46. Nicolas Roy sent a backhand pass through the crease to Brisson for a one-timer below the right circle.

Karlsson then tied it 2-2 at 4:28, scoring with a one-timer off a pass from Jonathan Marchessault after he was left uncovered low in the right circle.

“It was a close game and a very winnable game,” Golden Knights defenseman Brayden McNabb said. “We lay an egg in the third and that’s what we get.”

Zemgus Girgensons put the Sabres ahead 3-2 at 14:46 of the second. Eric Robinson pressured Vegas defenseman Alec Martinez into a turnover along the right wall and sent a short pass to Girgensons, who cut around Alex Pietrangelo in the circle before scoring far side.

“We saw the game plan was working for us in the first period and a bit, so there wasn’t need to panic,” Buffalo captain Kyle Okposo said. “… We just have to make sure we have faith in the way that we know how to play and we were playing tonight. There was nothing wrong with how we were playing, and we just wanted to make sure we continued that. It was definitely a mature response.”

Okposo pushed it to 4-2 at 2:20 of the third period when he batted the rebound of Skinner's shot toward the net, where it hit Thompson’s stick and knocked it into the net.

Power made it 5-2 at 6:26 with a point shot that beat a screened Thompson, and Mittelstadt scored from the top of the left circle on the power play to extend it to 6-2 at 12:18.

“They were just outcompeting us and I think, honestly, a lot of self-inflicted errors again tonight,” Cassidy said. “It’s been a costly road trip for that, in terms of us not managing the puck well on the offensive blue line. … That’s, to me, what happened a little bit and it snowballed from there. Buffalo had lots of life and took advantage.”

Cozens scored his second short-handed goal to make it 7-2 at 17:12. He backhanded the rebound of his own shot off the end boards past Thompson.

“It’s definitely been a struggle for me this year in the goal-scoring department,” Cozens said. “I feel like I couldn’t get any bounces, so to get a few today, it feels good. Hopefully it can be the start of getting the scoring touch back.”

NOTES: Skinner's goal was his 20th of the season. It is the third straight season he has reached the mark and 10th time in the NHL, which is tied with Tyler Seguin of the Dallas Stars for the most among players from the 2010 NHL Draft. … Cozens is the seventh player in Buffalo history to score multiple short-handed goals in a game and the first since Brandon Montour on March 31, 2021. … The last time the Sabres scored five straight goals against the defending Stanley Cup champions was Nov. 13, 2006, at the Carolina Hurricanes (a 7-4 win).