'A new standard' | Sabres play to identity as Luukkonen shuts out Avalanche

Erik Johnson has just about seen it all through 16 NHL seasons. His tenure with the Colorado Avalanche included a last-place finish, a Stanley Cup championship, and plenty in between.

The 35-year-old is well-versed in the ebbs and flows of a season, so the peaks and valleys the Buffalo Sabres had already experienced through their 3-5-0 start entering a matchup with his former team on Sunday afternoon had come as no surprise.

What was important was that the Sabres kept working toward their identity, as they did in their 4-0 victory over the Avalanche inside KeyBank Center.

“We needed to have a game like that, and it just happened to be against one of the top teams in the league,” Johnson said. "So, I think that’s a good measuring stick for us. I mean, that’s a team that knows how to win, that’s won, and it’s one of the top teams in the league.

“So regardless of who we played, we needed to have a game like that but to have it against a team like that, it’s a new standard for us and it’s got to be continued on.”

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 23 saves for the first shutout of his NHL career, including early stops on Ryan Johansen and Mikko Rantanen that bought his teammates time to find the consistency they would carry through the remainder of the game.

JJ Peterka, Casey Mittelstadt, and Tyson Jost scored to put the Sabres up 3-0 before the midway point of the second period and Rasmus Dahlin added an empty-net goal with 3:08 remaining. The penalty kill – a strength all season – went 6-for-6 with Luukkonen as its last line of defense.

Sabres coach Don Granato felt the performance was as close as his team has come this season to playing to its up-tempo identity.

“I don’t think we’ve had our game and that type of game all year,” Granato said. “So, hopefully it’s a revelation for our guys or something that they can feed off of and move forward on now, and I mentioned something with respect to that after the game as well.”

The Sabres scored all three of their even-strength goals on the rush, two of which featured players crashing the net to create havoc around Avalanche goaltender Alexandar Georgiev.  (The other was an odd-man rush that saw Mittelstadt fake a pass across before picking the near-side corner.)

At the other end, the Sabres were quick to kill plays and cleared space in front of Luukkonen to prevent second chances.

“Delete the first five [minutes] and I loved it the rest of the way,” Johnson said. “I loved it. I thought it was direct, it was just how we needed to play in the time we needed to play it. So, I think for us, it shows what we can do.”

Here’s more from the win over the Avalanche.

1. Luukkonen made his second start of the season with fellow goaltenders Eric Comrie and Devon Levi both nursing lower-body injuries. The 24-year-old felt good in his season debut, a 34-save victory in Ottawa on Tuesday, but a hectic final five minutes led to three late goals against.

His teammates ensured that didn’t happen again. They congratulated their goaltender on the ice as the crowd delivered the last of many “Luuuuuk” chants following the win, then recreated the chant in the dressing room as they gave Luukkonen the sword as player of the game.

“It feels great especially now when it’s only my second start of the season and maybe in Ottawa the numbers didn’t reflect how good I felt in that game,” Luukkonen said. “It’s really a confidence booster for me and something I’ve been waiting for a long time.”

2. Less than five minutes had ticked off the clock when a turnover gave Johansen a chance alone in front of the Buffalo net. About five minutes after that, Rantanen one-timed a shot from the slot on an odd-man rush.

Luukkonen made both saves to keep the game scoreless – no small feat, given that the Avalanche were 3-0-0 when scoring first.

“For him to keep them off the scoreboard until we could get our legs under us and find our rhythm was everything,” Granato said. “You don’t want to give that team confidence, and he denied that with some early action against him.”

3. Johnson played 6:53 shorthanded as the Sabres improved to 33-for-37 on the penalty kill this season. Their 89.2-percent success rate ranks sixth in the league.

Experience on the penalty kill was one of the reasons the Sabres pursued Johnson in free agency this season, and the group has already made strides under his leadership.

“It’s been a real bright spot for us, and I think it gives not only your kill confidence, it gives the other guys (a feeling of), ‘Hey, OK, they’re going to kill this off, we’re going to go over the boards and score,’” Johnson said. “And sometimes your goalie’s your best penalty killer and Upie was awesome.”

4. Rasmus Dahlin’s empty-net goal – launched the length of the ice from the corner of his own zone – extended his career-best point streak to eight games.

Dahlin is the third defensemen in Sabres history to have a point streak of at least eight games, joining Phil Housley (who did so six times) and John Van Boxmeer.

5. Jacob Bryson made his season debut on defense in place of Connor Clifton, who served the first game of a two-game suspension. Bryson skated 13:28 and had two blocked shots.

“I thought Brys was really good,” Granato said. “Showed a confidence level that he just did not have last year. Very confident, and that’s key in this league.”

6. The Sabres assigned goaltender Devin Cooley to Rochester after the game. Cooley was recalled Saturday and backed up Luukkonen against the Avalanche.

Up next

The Sabres open a home-and-home set with the Philadelphia Flyers at Wells Fargo Center on Wednesday at 7 p.m. The game will air exclusively on MSG/MSG+ in the Buffalo broadcast market with pregame coverage beginning at 6:30.

Out-of-market fans can find the national broadcast on TNT.