'It was that time, and they took over' | Takeaways from Wednesday's win

The situation felt eerily familiar as the Sabres left the ice for the second intermission at KeyBank Center on Wednesday. For the second time in three nights, they walked into the dressing room with a three-goal lead after 40 minutes. The first occasion ended in an overtime loss.
Don Granato could have used the intermission to remind players of the mistakes that led to what transpired Monday. He could have avoided the subject entirely and used the 15 minutes to reinforce the positives from the first two periods.
Instead, he did neither. Granato, in year 28 of a career that has spanned 13 stops at virtually every level, earned his first victory as an NHL head coach by simply getting out of the way.

"We felt it was best to just hand it to [the players]," Granato said. "… I wouldn't have handed it off to them if I wasn't confident that they could do it and handle it.
"As a coach, you only feel like you need to give them … what they need. At some point, they have to take over. You can't play the game for them, obviously. And that's always been my approach. A lot of coaching is getting out of the way. It was time for me to get out of the way, I really felt that. These guys have been great. It was that time, and they took over."
The Sabres maintained their stingy defensive effort over the last 20 minutes and finished with an offensive burst of their own in a 6-1 victory, snapping the 18-game winless streak that had burdened them since late February. Brandon Montour, who spoke emotionally following the defeat on Monday, iced the victory with a pair of shorthanded goals scored 37 seconds apart.
Storylines abounded along the way. Steven Fogarty, in year five as a pro and on the eve of facing his former team, earned his first NHL goal and followed it up with an assist just minutes later. Sam Reinhart started at center for the first time since early in his career and contributed on three goals, including one of his own to open the scoring in the first period.
We'll get to all of it. But our takeaways start with the interim head coach of the Sabres and the incremental improvement that led to a well-earned milestone.

1. How Granato earned win No. 1

Granato challenged his players to look like a different team within seven days when he spoke to them last Monday. He made a calculated choice to increase practice time at the expense of rest and preached playing with pace, defending aggressively, and seeing more time on offense as a result.
The signs of a team coming together showed during the first two periods in Boston on Saturday and against the Flyers on Monday. They showed for most of the full 60 minutes on Wednesday.
"It's exciting," Reinhart said. "I like the style we've been able to play, we've been able to skate more and play a faster game. Tonight, I think on the defensive end, we were able to build speed and make some plays coming out of our end a little bit more."
The Sabres held the Flyers without a high-danger shot attempt at 5-on-5, according to NaturalStatTrick.com. Improved breakouts and puck support through the neutral zone led to controlled zone exits and entries, such as on the rush that led to a Casey Mittelstadt goal during the second period.
Fogarty forced a turnover at the Buffalo blue line and maintained control under pressure along the boards through the neutral zone. When he sent a pass off the leg of a nearby Taylor Hall, Reinhart was there in support to scoop up the puck and enter with speed. The line controlled play in the zone until Fogarty eventually found a seam to an oncoming Mittelstadt.

"We're in no position to worry about wins," Granato said. "We just have to get better and we have to keep getting better. The focus has to stay on that and if you do that I know for sure, we all know for sure, you'll turn this thing and wins will come.
"It was nice to get the win because players have been so committed and so helpful for me. The leaders have been leaders. Everybody's worked. I've mentioned plenty of times the demand we put on them. We increased the demand on them and they responded."

2. A dream come true for Fogarty

Though not quite as long as Granato's, Fogarty's milestone marked the culmination of a long pro journey that spanned four full seasons in the New York Rangers organization. He spent the bulk of that tenure as a productive player for AHL Hartford, appearing in just 21 games for New York.
Fogarty signed a one-year deal with Buffalo during the fall and began the season in Rochester, where he was named captain. He had played three games with the Sabres before earning a recall from the taxi squad on Wednesday following an injury to rookie Dylan Cozens.
Ironically, the sequence leading to his goal began without a stick in his hands. Flyers defenseman Samuel Morin saw to that with a slash in front of the Philadelphia net during the second period. When Fogarty picked the stick back up, he found himself alone with an incoming pass from Rasmus Ristolainen.
Fogarty buried it, then made the play to set up Mittelstadt's goal less than six minutes later.

"It was awesome," he said. "I mean, it's something you always dream of, but to be able to get it in a winning effort makes it that much more special."
The Sabres host the Rangers on Thursday.

3. Reinhart returns to center

Reinhart entered the league as a center but settled into a role on the wing over the course of his career. He moved back to the middle on a line with Victor Olofsson and Kyle Okposo to begin the game Wednesday following the departure of Eric Staal via trade and the injury to Cozens.
"It was fun, I enjoyed it," he said afterward. "It was good come underneath the puck a little bit more and get a couple different looks. I thought the defensive part was went well. It's an easy system to read off of, so I enjoyed it."
Reinhart buried a shot off of defenseman Justin Braun for his team-leading 13th goal to open the scoring during the first period. He was on the ice for two scores during the second, winning a key battle along the boards on the sequence that led to Fogarty's goal and gaining entry with possession on the shift that ended with Mittelstadt's marker.

4. Montour makes history

It was Montour who scored the team's third goal on Monday, the high point of a night that ended in disaster. He spoke passionately in the wake of that loss, referring to the winless stretch as "embarrassing."
This time, Montour's goal left little room for doubt. Seconds after the Flyers pulled their goaltender for a 6-on-4 advantage, the defenseman sent a shot the length of the ice into the empty net. On the very next shift, he took a shot on the rush and buried his own rebound.
The shorthanded goals came 37 seconds apart, the fastest by a defenseman in NHL history. He became the second Sabres defenseman to score two shorthanded goals in the same game, joining Alexei Zhitnik.

Montour addressed his comments from Monday afterward.
"I showed my frustration," he said. "It was right after the game, I came in to talk to you guys. But I think everybody felt the same way. Obviously, I didn't need to say anything. Guys have been great. Guys have been positive through this tough time we're dealing with here.
"Tonight, luckily we all played together and got the win."

5. More notes!

Let's empty out the notebook from this one before moving on to New York.
• Curtis Lazar skated just five shifts during the second period and did not return for the third. He had scored his fifth goal of the season earlier in the contest, matching his total from last season.
• Kyle Okposo tallied two assists to extend his personal point streak to five games. He has two goals and four assists in that span.
• Jacob Bryson recorded a pair of assists for his first multi-point game in the NHL. He skated a team-high 22:31 and finished with a plus-four rating.