O'Reilly, Eichel fuel 4-goal period in win over Kings

Ryan O'Reilly is notoriously hard on himself after a bad game, or sometimes even after a good one. That was the case on the Buffalo Sabres' bench during the second period of their game against the Los Angeles on Tuesday night at KeyBank Center after Jeff Carter scored on a breakaway to give the Kings a 2-0 lead, positioning them well to earn their first win in Buffalo since 2003.
O'Reilly was one day removed from the one-year anniversary of what was arguably his most memorable goal as a Sabre so far, when he scored a fall-away goal in overtime to beat the Kings at home last season. Through 29 minutes on Tuesday, his game hadn't been quite as memorable. O'Reilly had been beaten inside on Anze Kopitar's goal in the first period and had taken an interference penalty that prevented a Sabres power play.

So, he took his frustration out on the ice. O'Reilly scored to put the Sabres on the board with 10:29 remaining in the period, sparking a run of four goals in a span of 6:13 in what would become a 6-3 Sabres win. It was the Sabres' first four-goal period of the season, and it was much needed for a team that entered the contest looking to make the most of their six remaining games before the holiday break.
"I think it was a little bit of anger with Ryan and a little bit of anger on the bench," Sabres coach Dan Bylsma said. "We needed to get going and I think you saw it on that shift. It ended up in a goal, but you saw it really the whole shift. He was taking over and taking the game on his stick and scored an outstanding goal for us."
"I was frustrated," O'Reilly added. "That first goal for them was my fault, I lost my coverage and I was just pretty disappointed. Going into the period, I knew I needed to step up and do something."
There are times when O'Reilly's puck handling makes the drills he does after every practice come to life in a game, and his goal on Tuesday was one of them. O'Reilly was the recipient of a rebound in the right faceoff circle and balanced the puck on his stick in midair to maintain possession. Once he wrapped behind the net, he stopped fast and deked right to make defenseman Jake Muzzin fall to the ice, then he circled back to his starting point in the right circle and flipped a backhand shot into the net.
"He's our leader," Sabres forward Jack Eichel said. "He's a huge player for our team, steps up, makes a huge play for us, scores a beautiful goal … [It] got us some momentum, maybe got the crowd off their feet for the first time."
Once O'Reilly scored, the flood gates were open. Eichel scored two goals in less than two minutes, the first of which came from a puck he simply tossed to the net from high in the zone that slid in past goalie Peter Budaj. His second goal was more convincing, this one a snipe from the high slot to the stick side.
Between Eichel's goals - just 12 seconds after his first - was one from captain Brian Gionta, who stood in the slot and tipped in Justin Falk's shot from the point for his seventh of the season.
"We were mature," O'Reilly said. "I thought in the room and stuff, we weren't affected by it. We knew we were down, but we stuck with it. We stayed calm, we knew we were going to get some bounces and once we started to get some momentum it was just goal after goal. That's what mature teams do, they use the momentum to their advantage. It was nice to see us do that tonight."
The Sabres' lead fell into jeopardy after a questionable icing call against them in the third period. The Kings won the ensuing faceoff and Carter took a high shot through traffic for his second goal of the game to make it 4-3 with 15:57 still remaining in regulation.
Eichel said the Sabres may have lacked an "assassin's mentality" when protecting some leads this season, but they didn't on this night. Eichel drove into the zone late in the period and delivered a remarkable turn-around pass up to Kyle Okposo in the slot.
When that pass skipped off Okposo's stick, Eichel got the puck again down low and delivered a quick, perfect pass to set up Evander Kane in the crease. Kane's fourth goal of the season restored the Sabres' two-goal lead with 4:18 remaining, and Sam Reinhart capped the scoring with an empty-net goal in the final minute.
"I thought our guys earned the victory tonight … Our mindset was, 'That's not going to be the one that gets them back into the game. That's not going to be the one that gets them momentum,'" Bylsma said of Carter's third-period goal. "I said it was a game we earned, we earned it with how hard we played and they needed it."
Robin Lehner made 30 saves in net for his first win since Nov. 21. He'd earned four decisions since then and hadn't allowed more than three goals in any of them. On Tuesday, he finally got the support he needed.
"We wall want to win," Lehner said. "We've got to look at the process though, we're working on our game and I'm working on my game. I've been feeling pretty good this year. Getting some production today was pretty nice."
"I think it's massive for him," Bylsma added. "I think Robin would tell you that wasn't his best game, but it was his best win."

A good start for Eichel and Okposo

The game Tuesday marked the first for Eichel and Okposo as linemates, and they seemed to develop chemistry pretty quickly when you consider they only had one practice together under their belt. Okposo earned the primary assist on both of Eichel's goals and a secondary assist on Kane's goal in the third period.
"He was a little bit sick yesterday so I didn't get the chance to practice with him then, but he's such an easy player to play with," Eichel said. "He understands the game so well. I think we were able to feed off each other a bit and understand where and what we were trying to do."
Kane and Matt Moulson both played on the left wing with Eichel and Okposo, and Moulson also earned assists on both of Eichel's goals.

Up next

The Sabres will conclude their current homestand against the New York Islanders on Friday night. It will mark the first of three meetings between the two teams this season, two of which will are set for December. The Sabres and Islanders also meet at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Dec. 23.
Coverage on Friday begins at 6:30 p.m. with the TOPS Pregame Show on MSG-B, or you can listen live on WGR 550. The puck drops between the Sabres and Islanders at 7 p.m.