At The Final Horn | Sabres defeat Coyotes in shootout

The Buffalo Sabres improved to 2-0-0 on the season with a 2-1 shootout win over the Arizona Coyotes on Saturday afternoon at KeyBank Center.
Dustin Tokarski stopped 20 shots in regulation and overtime plus two more in the shootout to earn his first win of the season.
Cody Eakin scored for the Sabres. Tage Thompson and Arttu Ruotsalainen tallied in the shootout.
Andrew Ladd potted Arizona's lone goal. Karel Vejmelka made 32 saves in his NHL debut between the pipes for the Coyotes.
The Sabres power play went 1-for-2 and were 2-for-2 on the penalty kill. This season, Buffalo is 4-for-8 with the man advantage and 6-for-6 while down a man.

How it happened

Despite outshooting the Coyotes 14-5 in the first period, the Sabres found themselves down 1-0 heading into the first intermission.
The Coyotes struck first with 6:09 remaining in the opening period when Ladd one-timed a behind-the-net feed from Ryan Dzingel. The Sabres had sustained pressure in the Coyotes zone, but Arizona transitioned up the ice and scored a quick one to take a 1-0 lead.
Buffalo tied things up with Eakin's power-play marker 1:05 into the second. He capitalized on a loose puck in front for his first goal of the season. Eakin's goal was his first power-play tally since March 18, 2019.
The Sabres had many chances and played with pace throughout the game, but couldn't capitalize for various reasons and Vejmelka was up to the challenge on many of those opportunities.
In the shootout, Thompson opened the skills challenge with a goal in the top of the first and Nick Schmaltz matched him with a goal in the bottom of the round. Ruotsalainen scored on a backhand in the top of the second and Phil Kessel was then stopped by Tokarski. Victor Olofsson was denied on his opportunity in the top of the third and then Clayton Keller's backhand missed the net to end the game.

Roll the highlight film

Let's take a look at Eakin's goal as called by the great Rick Jeanneret:

Worthy of a mention

During the game, the Sabres claimed defenseman Christian Wolanin off of waivers. The left-shot defenseman recorded three assists in 18 games last season with Ottawa and Los Angeles.
Center Casey Mittelstadt (upper-body injury) and defenseman Henri Jokiharju (lower-body) were injured on Thursday and are expected to miss at least a few weeks. Jokiharju was placed on injured reserve before Saturday's game to make room for Wolanin.

Coming up

The season-opening four game homestand continues Tuesday night with a game against the Vancouver Canucks. Faceoff is set for 7 p.m. with pregame coverage on MSG starting at 6:30.
Tickets for the game are on sale now.