Postgame Report | Sabres unable to take lead in home loss to Jets

Connor Hellebuyck had one last game-changing save in him as Jeff Skinner wrapped behind the Winnipeg Jets' net with under two minutes remaining inside KeyBank Center on Thursday.
Hellebuyck slid back from the top of the crease and pinned his left skate against the post, stopping Skinner's attempt at the tying goal. The puck flipped into the air and fell behind Hellebuyck, but the Jets goaltender clamped it between his skates on the goal line.
Karson Kuhlman scored an empty-net goal less than a minute later to put the finishing touches on a 4-2 victory for the Jets. Hellebuyck made 39 saves.
"Hellebuyck looked like a sumo wrestler with athleticism," Sabres coach Don Granato said of the Jets' 6-foot-4, 207-pound goaltender.

The Sabres finished with a 41-27 edge in shots and twice erased one-goal deficits. They took 16 shots in the third period alone, including Tyson Jost's game-tying goal at the 2:50 mark.
The goal from Jost ignited the crowd and swayed momentum in Buffalo's favor. The Sabres spent much of the ensuing four minutes in the Winnipeg zone, a span that crescendoed when Jost had a chance at the go-ahead goal at the doorstep to the right of the net. Hellebuyck robbed him with a pad save.
Seconds later, Kyle Connor jumped a pass in the Winnipeg zone and scored the winner on a breakaway.
"He's a high-caliber goaltender," Casey Mittelstadt said of Hellebuyck. "He's one of the best in the league. I thought he played well tonight."
Victor Olofsson had a goal and an assist for the Sabres as well as a team-high six shots and 11 attempts. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen returned in goal after missing Tuesday's game against Seattle with an illness and made 24 saves, including multiple high-danger stops that kept the Sabres in striking distance.
The loss was Buffalo's third in a row. The Sabres felt they played more to their aggressive, attacking identity than they had in previous losses to Philadelphia and Seattle, which showed in the shot column and in the quality of their opportunities.
They simply ran into a hot goaltender in Hellebuyck. The 2019-20 Vezina Trophy winner entered the night ranked second in the NHL in save percentage. The Jets ranked fourth in goals allowed per game.
"I think when we look back on it, probably watch the film, we're going to see a few good chances," Mittelstadt said. "Maybe a few missed that even on that goalie we normally have, and it just seems like maybe a little how it's going.
"A lot was going in for a few games there and maybe we're seeing the flip side of it. We've got to keep pushing. We'll find it here again."

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How it happened

PERIOD 1
Dylan Samberg opened the scoring for Winnipeg at 6:35. Blake Wheeler screened Luukkonen as Samberg sent a shot from above the left faceoff circle.
The Sabres finished the period leading 10-9 in shots.
PERIOD 2
The Sabres generated 17 scoring chances in the period, according to Natural Stat Trick, but were held off the board by Hellebuyck until Olofsson finally buried a shot from the high slot with 7:58 remaining.
Mittelstadt fended off a defender behind the goal line and delivered the pass to Olofsson for his fourth assist in the last five games.

The Jets responded with their second goal of their own 2:09 later, using the same recipe at their first. Josh Morrissey took a slap shot from the point after a faceoff win in the offensive zone and Pierre-Luc Dubois set the screen in front of Luukkonen.
PERIOD 3
Olofsson delivered a spin-o-rama pass to set up Jost's tying goal just 2:50 into the period.

The Sabres grabbed ahold of the momentum from there, igniting the crowd as they pushed for the go-ahead goal. They nearly got it on a chance for Jost at the doorstep, but Hellebuyck robbed him with a pad save.
Seconds later, Connor jumped a pass in the Winnipeg zone and scored on a breakaway. Karson Kuhlman potted an empty-netter with 42.7 seconds remaining to make it 4-2.

What we learned

1.The Sabres spoke Thursday morning about getting back to playing aggressive. While the shots didn't fall, they felt they took a step in the right direction to that end.
"A really important factor for us tonight was to get back to our game, play a higher tempo, higher paced game," Granato said. "I thought [Winnipeg] played with a lot of intent to try to deny that, deny that high-paced game even though they're a very high-paced team. They were aggressive defensively, they clogged the neutral zone up very well. We had to work hard to get our ice and create our ice. I thought our guys did a nice job to do that and got some volume of opportunity."

2.Luukkkonen made a handful of highlight-reel saves, including a scramble to rob Cole Perfetti in the second period.
"Uppie didn't have as much work as [Hellebuyck], but Uppie was also very good and his body language was good," Granato said. "He looked with it. He read things well and I was happy to see that from him as well."
3.The Sabres earned a 16-4 edge in shot attempts with the line of Mittelstadt, Jost, and Olofsson on the ice at 5-on-5.
"They're in sync," Granato said. "They constantly communicate, the three of those guys, every rush or rep in practice, every shift back on the bench. And we've seen that. We've seen their relationships, the three of them, grow to the point they have been very effective for us the last two games especially."

Up next

The Sabres visit the Nashville Predators on Saturday. Coverage on MSG begins at 7:30 p.m. The puck drops at 8.