At The Final Horn | Asplund's 2-goal game gives Sabres OT win over Ducks

The Buffalo Sabres saw an early lead slip away, but a pair of goals from Rasmus Asplund, including the game winner with 43.2 seconds left in overtime, lifted the club to a 4-3 victory over the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center on Thursday.
The Sabres led 3-0 in the second period and had the lead evaporate as Anaheim chipped away and controlled play. However, the Sabres persevered to win the first game of their four-game West Coast road trip and improve to 5-1-1 on the season.
Craig Anderson was sensational between the pipes for Buffalo, making 34 saves.
Zemgus Girgensons and Arttu Ruotsalainen also scored for Buffalo. Victor Olofsson recorded the primary assist on both of Asplund's goals.

Troy Terry extended his point streak to six games (3+5) with a goal for Anaheim. Adam Henrique and
Simon Benoit also scored for the Ducks. Benoit's goal was the first of his NHL career. Anthony Stolarz stopped 25 of 29 shots.
Buffalo's power play finished 1-for-2, while the penalty kill was successful on the Ducks' only chance on the man advantage.

How it happened

Anderson had to be sharp for the Sabres early on, making 17 saves in the opening period.
He made a few point-blank chances and stopped Jamie Drysdale on a breakaway after the 19-year-old defenseman picked off the puck at the Ducks blue line. Kyle Okposo was in hot pursuit to help break up that play.

Girgensons opened the scoring with 4:57 left in the first period. A shot by Okposo from the far right wing was steered aside by Stolarz, but right to Girgensons on the left wing, who potted his third goal of the season. Buffalo was outshot 15-9 at that point.
By the end of the period, the Sabres were outshot 17-12, but shooting attempts were just 25-22 in favor of Anaheim.
Buffalo opened the second period with a pair of early goals.

Asplund put the Sabres up 2-0 at the 4:24 mark. After Isac Lundestrom was stopped on a shorthanded backhand attempt, Buffalo worked the puck back up ice and set up their power-play unit in the Ducks zone.
The Sabres cycled the puck and worked it to Asplund, who did his best Victor Olofsson impression inside the right faceoff circle to one-time it in past Stolarz.

Then Ruotsalainen made it 3-0 when he deflected an Anders Bjork wrist shot top shelf 6:01 into the second.
The Ducks got one back while the two teams were playing four-aside at 7:46 of the middle frame. Terry took a cross-ice feed from Ryan Getzlaf and beat Anderson glove side.
With 3:27 left in the second, Henrique finally cashed in after Anaheim had multiple prime opportunities in front of the net during the sequence.

Buffalo entered the third period with the lead and Anaheim put on pressure to quickly tie things up. A shot by Benoit deflected off Dylan Cozens in front and squeaked through Anderson's legs 6:00 in.
Caggiula hit the post with 1:07 left in regulation.
The Ducks controlled play throughout the third, outshooting the Sabres 10-1 in the final 20. Bjork was credited with Buffalo's only shot on goal in the third, a wrist shot that came with 8:52 remaining.
Asplund's second goal came late in the overtime period while on a shift with Olofsson. Olofsson worked the puck into the slot, drew two defenders to him and slipped the puck to a wide-open Asplund, who was able to put the puck into the back of the net.

Roll the highlight film

Here's the overtime winner:

Worthy of a mention

• Asplund's overtime goal was the first game-winning goal of his career. He also scored his first-ever power-play goal and recorded his first-career multi-goal game.
• The Sabres are now 3-0-1 when leading after two periods and have outscored their opponents 8-3 in the third.

Coming up

The road trip continues on Halloween. The Sabres will take on the Los Angeles Kings on Sunday at 4 p.m. ET on MSG and WGR 550. Pregame coverage on MSG will begin at 3:30.
And a friendly reminder that Tuesday's game in San Jose will air exclusively on ESPN+ and Hulu at 10:30 p.m. A subscription to those streaming services is required. You can find more details here. https://www.nhl.com/info/where-to-stream