Anderson makes 27 saves in return, Sabres top Coyotes

GLENDALE, Ariz. --Craig Anderson made 27 saves in his return, and the Buffalo Sabres handed the Arizona Coyotes their fifth straight loss with a 3-1 win at Gila River Arena on Saturday.

Anderson hadn't played since Nov. 2 because of an upper-body injury (missed 33 games).
"It was a nice finish to a chaotic day for us," Sabres coach Don Granato said. "I thought Craig was amazing, how simple he makes the game look in the net. You can tell why he's been a great goaltender in this League for a long time."
Alex Tuch and Peyton Krebs each had a goal and an assist, and Kyle Okposo scored for the Sabres (14-22-7), who were coming off a 5-0 loss at the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday.

Buffalo played without defenseman Rasmus Dahlin and forwards
Victor Olofsson
and
Rasmus Asplund
because of NHL COVID-19 protocol. Anderson was activated after goalie Michael Houser went into protocol Friday.
"We had to look at ourselves and say, 'What can we control?' It's what we have in the room, right? It's not what we don't have. Throughout the season, whether it's injuries or COVID, there's going to be pieces that are in and out," Anderson said. "You just can't worry about, 'Oh, we're missing this guy or missing that guy' and think it's going to a horrible night. If you say, 'Hey, this is what we've got' and have that mindset, good things usually happen."
Shayne Gostisbehere scored, and Karel Vejmelka made 32 saves for the Coyotes (10-29-4), who were coming off a 2-1 loss to the Boston Bruins on Friday and have been outscored 22-8 during their skid.
"Last night's game that was probably one of our better games of a 60-minute hockey game, and you'd think we'd come in here with a little more motivation to build off that," Arizona forward Lawson Crouse said. "But we let things slide early."
Okposo's wrist shot from the right face-off circle on a power play gave Buffalo a 1-0 lead at 7:02 of the first. He missed the previous three games with an upper-body injury.
"For me, personally, I was coming back to the rink, excited to play and then it was just boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, one thing after the other for us," Okposo said. "We just tried to focus on coming together as a team for 60 minutes and get a win, and we did."

Krebs made it 2-0 at 15:07, scoring off a pass from Casey Mittelstadt on a 2-on-1.
Tuch then tapped in a centering pass from Krebs to push the lead to 3-0 at 7:14 of the second.
"We gave them a lot of space," Coyotes forward Christian Fischer said. "It was a winnable game, we knew it, when we didn't turn the puck over. But you're down after two periods, and you're just chasing the game."
Tuch has scored 12 points (four goals, eight assists) in 11 games since being acquired, along with Krebs, in a trade with the Vegas Golden Knights for forward Jack Eichel on Nov. 4.
"It's nice to see guys execute. I mean, that's a high level of skill," Granato said. "We talked about being in the chaos of the day, but when you look at your line chart as a coach and you look at guys like Peyton Krebs and Alex Tuch … it's nice to have the skill we have. They're guys whose careers are evolving in front of all of us."
Gostisbehere made it 3-1 on a power play at 11:30 of the third.
"We didn't have much," Coyotes coach Andre Tourigny said. "When you're not into it, when you don't have the urgency, that's what happens. The pressure was not hard on the puck. We're not physical. We're not reloading hard enough. We can go on and on."

NOTES:Krebs has scored four points (three goals, one assist) in his past three games. … Buffalo won both games against Arizona this season. … Sabres forward Tage Thompson had the secondary assist on Tuch's goal and has scored six points (two goals, four assists) in his past four games. ... Buffalo defenseman Will Butcher sustained a lower-body injury early in the first period and didn't return.