Skinner scores 20th of season, but Sabres fall to Panthers in overtime

SUNRISE, Florida - Although the 10-game winning streak is behind them, the Buffalo Sabres are still near the top of the NHL standings, and that means the opposition is going to do everything they can to knock Buffalo down a peg.
The Florida Panthers were the latest team to give the Sabres its best effort and ended up rallying back to pick up a 3-2 overtime win over Buffalo at BB&T Center on Friday.
Buffalo held the lead until midway through third period when the Panthers scored a power-play goal with 8:04 remaining to force overtime. Then Aleksander Barkov one-timed a puck in during the extra period to give the home team the victory.
The Sabres are now 0-1-1 after their dramatic run ended with a loss to Tampa Bay on Thursday. With 37 points, they're tied with the Lightning for first overall.

"You talk about every team being ready. They know about the streak now. They see where we are in the standings and we're going to get everybody's best game," Sabres coach Phil Housley said. "Going through this now for the last couple games, against Tampa and coming in here, we didn't execute well.
"...Give them credit because they came out with a purpose and going through this, our guys are learning that we're going to get the best game and we've got to be a little more desperate in our game, especially on the road here."
Linus Ullmark was strong in net for Buffalo, making 40 saves.

"We've got ultimate confidence in either of these guys going in net," captain Jack Eichel said. "He steals a point for us tonight."
The Sabres were outshot 43-24 in the game and 35-19 at even strength. Jeff Skinner, who scored one of Buffalo's two goals, felt that they didn't have nearly enough offensive zone time to be successful.
"It seemed like we had a tough time getting into their end and sustaining our forecheck," he said. "We turned a couple pucks over too many, and it's a skilled group over there. You give them too many chances, they're going to hurt you. Maybe we just need be a little more simple, a little bit more clean through the neutral zone. That would allow us to spend more time in their end."

Roaring 20

Jeff Skinner opened the scoring, cashing in a 2-on-1 with Sam Reinhart with 9:05 to play in the first period.
With the goal, Jeff Skinner reached the 20-goal mark in his 27th game of the season. Only four Sabres - Alexander Mogilny (23 games in 1992-93), Rick Martin (24 games in 1972-73), Dave Andreychuk (26 games in 1992-93) and Danny Gare (26 games in 1975-76) - have scored 20 goals in fewer games.
Skinner and Martin are the only two Sabres to reach 20 goals before Dec. 1. Mogilny set the single-season franchise record with 76 goals that season. His 23rd game of the season was played on Dec. 9, 1992.
He's the second player to hit the 20-goal mark this season. Winnipeg's Patrick Laine has 21.

Power plays make a difference

The Panthers tied it up on the power play with 1:29 left in the first when Jared McCann's slap shot deflected off Zach Bogosian and in over the shoulder of Linus Ullmark.
The Sabres' power play got on the board for the first time in three games thanks to a goal from Reinhart. Eichel raced down the right wing and tossed a puck in front of the net. It bounced and Reinhart was able to knock it in for his sixth goal of the season.

With a goal and an assist on the evening, Reinhart extended his point streak to three games. He has five points (3+2) over that stretch.
Ullmark was credited with the secondary assist for his first career point.
Florida then tied it again with the man advantage when Evgenii Dadonov potted his 11th of the season. Florida finished the game 2-for-4 with the man advantage. In overtime, the Sabres mostly controlled the play, but Barkov's goal came 2:26 in, on Florida's only shot in the 3-on-3 sequence.
Ullmark felt that he could've made a difference on all three goals allowed, particularly the third.
"On the third one, I wasn't aware of where Barkov was, he said. "It's 3-on-3, you should be able to handle three guys out there. In my mind, I should be aware of where they are at all times."

Taking flight

The game also marked the NHL debut of Lawrence Pilut.
The 22-year-old defenseman logged 12:48 of ice time, one hit and two blocked shots. He ended up a plus-1 since he was on the ice for Skinner's goal.
"I really liked Lawrence stepping in. In this situation, I thought he handled himself really well," Housley said. "He made some mistakes. It's part of his development, we understand that, but all in all, I like the way he played in both ends of the ice.
You see a lot of confidence in his game."
Pilut got the call because Marco Scandella and Jake McCabe are currently out of the lineup with upper-body injuries. McCabe is considered day-to-day while Scandella was placed on injured reserve earlier in the day.
He entered the night fifth in the AHL in scoring, but it was his defensive game that caught Housley's eye.
"He has a really good stick, stick-on-puck detail. Especially in the defensive zone, he leads with it," Housley said. "He's on the puck. He doesn't give a lot of time and space to the [player] that he's defending. It's a good step. It was great to get him in that game."

Coming up

It doesn't get any easier for Buffalo as they have another tough test ahead. After a practice session on Sunday, they'll go up against the Nashville Predators at Bridgestone Arena on Monday.
(The Predators are 4-5-1 in their last 10 games and are coming off a 3-0 loss to Arizona on Thursday. They host Chicago on Saturday. They're tied for first place in the Western Conference with 35 points following Colorado's overtime loss to St. Louis on Friday.)
And then Toronto will be waiting for a game against the Sabres at KeyBank Center on Tuesday. Tickets for that game are on sale now.