Recap: Ducks Can't Hold Tight Lead, Fall 7-3 to Sabres at Honda Center

Cam Fowler scored twice and Lukas Dostal made 37 saves in his 10th career NHL start, but the Buffalo Sabres skated to a 7-3 victory tonight at Honda Center.
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The loss, Anaheim's third in a row, dropped the club to 17-32-6 on the season and 9-15-1 on home ice. The Ducks return to action Friday to host the Los Angeles Kings in the second installment of the 2022-23 Freeway Face-Off.
Fowler scored twice, helping the Ducks temporarily wipe out an early two-goal deficit. Kevin Shattenkirk also scored, his first goal of the season, and tallied an assist for his second multi-point performance of the year. Derek Grant posted two assists.
Fourteen of the 18 Buffalo skaters found the scoresheet in the win, including seven different goal scorers. Tyson Jost, Peyton Krebs, Jack Quinn, Dylan Cozens, Rasmus Dahlin, Casey Mittelstadt and Alex Tuch each registered multiple points. Eric Comrie earned the win in net with 19 saves.
The opening period belonged to Buffalo, as the Sabres outshot Anaheim 19-3 in the opening 20 minutes to claim a 2-0 lead at intermission.
Jost broke the ice six minutes after puck drop. As the Sabres controlled a faceoff to Dostal's right, the netminder denied a point shot, directing the rebound into the corner. Jost got to it first, spinning and throwing a shot towards the net from below that goal line that caromed off Dostal and through his leg pads, going down as an early tough luck goal against for the rookie netminder.
Claimed on waivers from Minnesota earlier this season, Jost has 5-10=15 points in 35 games with Buffalo this season.
The NHL's third-ranked goal scorer doubled the lead later in the period with a power-play goal. With Kevin Shattenkirk less than five seconds from leaving the penalty box, the Sabres worked the puck to Tage Thompson in the left circle, where he crushed a one-timer past a sliding Dostal to give the Sabres a 2-0 advantage.
Thompson's 36 goals on the season are tied for third-most by a Sabre in the last decade, trailing only his 38-goal breakout performance a year ago and Jeff Skinner's 40 in 2018-19. The 25-year-old Phoenix native is third among league leaders in goals, tied-for-second in power-play goals (16) and seventh in power-play points (27).
With the primary assist on both first-period goals, Dahlin passed former Sabre Doug Bodger for eighth-most assists by an NHL defenseman before their 23rd birthday. A former No. 1 overall pick, Dahlin is second among all league blueliners in scoring (14-44=58), third in goals and fourth in assists.
Skinner drew the secondary helper on Thompson's goal, moving within seven points of becoming the 50th active NHLer with 600 in their career. A former Calder Trophy winner as the league's top rookie, Skinner is averaging more than one point-per-game for the first time in his 13-year NHL run.
Anaheim bounced back in the second, finding their legs with a couple of strong shifts and tying the game with a pair of goals from the blue line.
Shattenkirk scored the first as Trevor Zegras wove his way through the Buffalo defense at neutral ice. After gaining the line, Zegras evaded two Sabres stick checks before spotting Shattenkirk racing down right wing, sliding a cross-seam pass that the veteran defenseman fired past Comrie to the blocker side.

Zegras has points in five of his last six games (2-3=5) and 17 points in his last 16 appearances (9-8=17). He leads Anaheim in points, co-leads in goals and multi-point games and ranks second in assists.
Fowler tied the game 71 seconds later, playing catch with his partner Kulikov at the blue line and then firing a shot through a swarm of bodies in front and past a completely screened Comrie.

With two goals on the night, Fowler owns seven points (4-3=7) in his last eight games. He paces Ducks defensemen in scoring (9-19=28), goals and assists this season.
The longest-tenured current Duck struck again six minutes later to give Anaheim its first lead of the evening, crashing the net while two Ducks forwards dug for the loose puck on the doorstep, with Fowler eventually potting it home for the go-ahead goal.

The two-goal performance also marked Fowler's fourth career multi-goal game, and his second of the season, the former of which tied three former Ducks (Francois Beauchemin, Chris Pronger and Lubomir Visnovsky) for most in Ducks history. Fowler is also tied for sixth among NHL defensemen in goals (five) since the holiday break.
Grant and Shattenkirk both drew assists on Fowler's second of the night. Grant's multi-point game was his first of a year spent battling several nagging injuries. The versatile veteran forward, who tonight played left wing on Anaheim's top line, has three points (all assists) in his last two games.
Unfortunately for Anaheim, the sudden one-goal edge would be quite short-lived as Buffalo leveled the score again on the next shift and then reclaimed the lead just before the end of the period.
With the public address announcer still declaring Fowler's go-ahead goal, the Sabres capitalized on a couple consecutive Ducks defensive zone turnovers, with Krebs finding space in the slot for a one-timer past Dostal.
The 22-year-old Krebs, a 2019 first-round pick by Vegas, has goals in back-to-back games for the first time in his young NHL career.
Mittlestadt put the Sabres back in front with less than two minutes to play in the second on a shot he could not have hand-placed any better. With his linemates changing behind the play, Mittelstadt attacked the Anaheim zone solo, turning like he was waiting for a teammate to join him before picking his spot with a dart of a shot off the crossbar and in, restoring the Sabres' lead headed to the third.
Another former first-round pick, Mittelstadt has points in three straight games (2-3=5), including two multi-point efforts. He's already set career-highs in assists (24) and points (34) this season.
A team that's made a living at times this season erasing late deficits, the Ducks would be unable to create more magic on Superhero Night, as Tuch tucked a crucial insurance marker early in the frame to give the visitors some breathing room. For Dostal, it was another tough bounce, this time with the puck ramping off Shattenkirk's stick and changing course up over the goalie's shoulder.
Tuch, acquired alongside Krebs in the deal that sent Jack Eichel to Vegas, is enjoying a career-season, already with personal bests in goals (25) and points (57) and a career-tying mark in assists (32).
Girgensons added to the lead a few minutes later, collecting a behind the back pass from Quinn and beating Dostal from the low slot.
Cozens capped the scoring with 1:07 to play, finding himself alone in front of Dostal, taking a centering pass and lifting a backhander over the netminder's outstretched right leg.
The Ducks conclude their two-game homestand Friday night with the second installment of the 2022-23 Freeway Face-Off.