At The Final Horn: Sabres 2 - Islanders 3

A late power play proved to be the difference Monday night between the Buffalo Sabres and the New York Islanders.
The Sabres had battled back to tie the game, but the Islanders put themselves ahead with a goal from Jean-Gabriel Pageau with 4:52 left in regulation to win 3-2 at Nassau Coliseum.
Curtis Lazar scored his fourth goal of the season for Buffalo and Sam Reinhart potted his third goal in three games. Linus Ullmark made 20 saves in net.
Pageau, Anders Lee and Matt Martin all scored for New York. Lee and Pageau have scored in all three games played between these two clubs so far this year. Semyon Varlamov stopped 34 Sabres shot.
Buffalo's power play went 1-for-3 in the game while the penalty kill was 1-for-2.

What happened

The Sabres opened the scoring with 2:45 remaining in the first period when Lazar deflected in a point shot from Henri Jokiharju that had already gone off the stick of an Islanders player.
Lee made it a 1-1 game when he put the moves on Ullmark in tight 3:56 into the second period.
New York took the lead 3:01 into the third period when Martin tallied. The Islanders were able to keep the puck in the zone after stopping a Buffalo clearing attempt and then Martin picked up a loose puck and fired it in through traffic.
Fifty-three seconds later, Taylor Hall cut in and put a shot on for a chance to tie the game, but he hit the far post.
The Sabres were able to make it 2-2 when Reinhart batted the puck in just under the crossbar with the flat part of his blade while on the power play up at the 5:48 mark of the third. Reinhart has six goals on the season, which is tied with Victor Olofsson for the team lead. Olofsson's assist on the goal put him in a tie with captain Jack Eichel for the team lead in points with 13.
With Riley Sheahan in the box for tripping, Pageau scored on the power play with 4:52 remaining in regulation to put the Islanders back in the lead for good.

Roll the highlight film

Reinhart's goal is one of the prettiest we've seen in a while:

Worth mentioning

The Sabres received unfortunate news when it came to their defense before the game. The team announced alternate captain Jake McCabe would need the next six-to-eight months to recover from injuries in his right knee to his ACL, MCL and meniscus. He sustained the injury during Saturday's game.
Buffalo was also without defensemen Will Borgen, who is day-to-day with an upper-body injury, and Rasmus Ristolainen, who is recovering from COVID-related symptoms. The is no timetable for Ristolainen's return.
With only five healthy defensemen on the active roster, Brandon Davidson was called up from the taxi squad before the game. Davidson recorded three shots in 14:25.
Casey Mittelstadt was also recalled from the taxi squad and skated in his third game of the season. He picked up an assist on Lazar's goal. Mittelstadt took the place of Jeff Skinner in the lineup.
During the game, Tobias Rieder played his last shift with 4:22 remaining in the first period before leaving with an apparent injury. Stay tuned to Sabres.com's postgame coverage for a possible update on Rieder's status.

Coming up

Buffalo's four-game road trip concludes Tuesday night when the Sabres take on the New Jersey Devils. Faceoff from Prudential Center is set for