Johnson tallies first goal as a Sabre in loss to Calgary

Erik Johnson has been praised for his veteran leadership in the Sabres locker room and his ability to play heavy minutes on the top penalty kill unit. The defenseman showed another element of his game Thursday as he tallied his first goal as a member of the Sabres in the team’s 4-3 loss to the Calgary Flames at KeyBank Center.

Down 1-0 after Jonthan Huberdeau scored in the opening minute, Kyle Okposo pinched in to keep the play alive and found Rasmus Dahlin, who fed the puck to Johnson on the left point to tie the score 6:06 in.

“It’s great to score, it’s great to contribute any way on the team I can. Credit to Kyle and Dahls for making those plays. Any time I can chip one in, it’s a bonus,” Johnson said. “That’s not really what I’m known for anymore, but fun to contribute. Obviously, I’d trade that for a win, but you know, it’s nice to contribute and hopefully I’ll pot a few more and get some more wins most importantly.”

The Sabres went down a goal on three separate occasions and were able to cut the deficit each time but were unable to recover from an Adam Ruzicka tally late in the third.

Sabres coach Don Granato felt the team did not play a direct game and appeared sloppy with the puck at times.

“The difference in the game, for me, was Calgary did a nice job playing a very direct game and they got their bounces. They made their breaks. I felt we didn’t play direct enough,” Granato said. “Five-on-five we wanted to play a little bit pretty at times and we didn’t play direct enough.”

The Flames took their second lead of the game with 9:45 left in the first on a goal from Walker Duehr as Yegor Sharangovich recovered a loose puck in front of the net and passed it far side to Duehr, who had an open net to shoot on with Devon Levi caught out of the crease.

Buffalo answered back with a power-play goal from Tage Thompson with 5:32 remaining in the opening period to tie the score once again at 2-2.

With less than 30 seconds to go in the second, the Sabres gave up a breakaway to Elias Lindholm. Levi made a spectacular save on Lindholm to keep the score tied heading into the intermission before the Flames capitalized on a 4-on-2 opportunity with a goal from Blake Coleman to open the third.

The Sabres responded once again with a goal from JJ Peterka, only for Ruzicka to put the Flames back in front less than two minutes later.

“We won’t win in the long run like that, and that takes a five-man commitment on the ice to do it right,” Johnson said. “Sometimes that comes with going through those lumps and sometimes in order to have success you’ve got to learn those mistakes. But those are things we can clean up no problem, it’s just a mindset to committing to do that.

“…I think there’s so much skill in here that guys, I think they mean well, and they want to do the right thing, but sometimes that extra play isn’t it. And it’s not just one particular guy. It’s me, it’s everybody. It’s a collective group that needs to make that change and take that next step.”

Despite struggling at times at 5-on-5, the Sabres’ power-play and penalty-kill units played well, going a perfect 5-for-5 on the PK and 1-for-5 on the power play against a team that had yet to allow a power-play goal this season.

“I think when you don’t score in a while, you start to try to overcomplicate things. I think we did some video this morning and just tried to get back to basics,” Thompson said. “Just shoot, recover pucks, and I think that’s kind of the sequence that led to the goal there. Just puck recovery and kind of a scrambly play and then quick puck movement, let the puck do the work.”

Here are more notes from Thursday's game.

1. With assists on Buffalo's first two goals, Dahlin extended his point streak to three games. At the end of the game, he was tied for second among NHL defensemen in assists with four in three contests.

2. Peterka dropped to one knee and buried a pass from Dylan Cozens for his second goal of the season.

Following the game, Granato explained what made Peterka effective throughout.

“I thought he was more direct. He had a couple of chances,” Granato said. “Early he maybe overhandled the puck a little bit before he pulled the trigger, and the goal, he did not. He grabbed it and snapped it in one motion."

3. Mattias Samuelsson (4:39), Erik Johnson (4:33), Tage Thompson (4:30), Owen Power (3:44), and Jordan Greenway (3:26) all played over three minutes on the penalty kill. The Sabres’ penalty kill improved to 12-for-12 in their last three games.

4. Levi finished with 32 saves in his fourth straight start for the Sabres.

Up Next

The Sabres will be back in their black and red third jerseys for the first time this season when they host the New York Islanders at KeyBank Center on Saturday.

Tickets are available here.

Coverage on MSG begins at 6:30 p.m. The puck drops at 7 on MSG and WGR 550.