The Blue Jackets were rampant in the first period, outshooting the Sabres by a 13-2 margin and taking a two-goal lead into the intermission. Buffalo goalie Eric Comrie denied chances by Kent Johnson and Carson Meyer in the early going, but a perfect passing play from Andrew Peeke to Stanislav Svozil to Bemstrom at the net front resulted in the first goal of the game at the 8:47 mark. Marchenko then added a power-play goal to make it 2-0 at 13:29, taking a pass from Mikael Pyyhtia at the left dot and ripping a perfect shot over Comrie's shoulder.
Buffalo got one back in the second period, taking just 3:49 to get on the board. Jack Quinn, coming off a 61-point season in the AHL, had the puck behind the net and found defenseman Chase Priskie pinching down from the point, hitting him with a quick pass for a finish past Daniil Tarasov that made it 2-1. Tarasov was impressive the rest of the period with some big stops to keep the score there before being replaced by Jet Greaves.
The Sabres pushed early in the third to tie it but couldn't get one past Greaves, which proved crucial when Voracek made it a 3-1 game 7:58 into the third. Trey Fix-Wolansky spotted Voracek sneaking behind the defense and hit him in stride, and Voracek fought off a defender and flipped a shot past Comrie to double the lead. Vladislav Gavrikov nearly had another shortly thereafter but hit the post off a feed from Johnson, who had a tremendous game offensively. Meyer put the nail in the coffin, though, with 3:24 to go when he took a feed from Justin Richards shorthanded and snuck a perfect breakaway move under the bar to make it 4-1.
