Sabres get shootout win against Red Wings, keep pace in East wild card

DETROIT-- The Buffalo Sabres allowed the tying goal with one minute left in the third period but recovered for a 7-6 shootout victory against the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena on Thursday.

"I loved the way we responded to adversity tonight," Sabres coach Don Granato said. "We gave up the late goal, but we were great in the overtime, and then we got down in the shootout and came back to win it."
Buffalo remained six points behind the Florida Panthers and New York Islanders for the two wild cards into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference. The Sabres have two games in hand.
"This is a great win, but now we have to forget about it and get ready for the next game," Buffalo forward Dylan Cozens said.
Cozens had two goals and an assist, and Owen Power had three assists for the Sabres (38-32-7), who won for the third time in four games. Devon Levi made 26 saves.
Lucas Raymond had three assists and scored in the shootout for Detroit (35-33-10), which was eliminated from playoff contention. Ville Husso made 30 saves.
"It's difficult, but I'm really proud of our group to hang in as long as we did," Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin said. "You guys saw the emotion after the trade deadline. It took us a few weeks to feel normal again, but we kept battling."

Matt Luff set up Jonatan Berggren for a tap-in to get Detroit within 6-5 at 8:02 of the third period, and David Perron tied the game 6-6 at 19:00.
Alex Tuch and Jack Quinn scored in the final two rounds of the shootout for Buffalo after Raymond had put Detroit ahead.
"Alex was really disappointed when he missed his penalty shot, so he was chomping at the bit when we got to the shootout," Granato said.
Tuch shot high on a penalty shot at 4:00 of the first period, but Tage Thompson scored his 45th goal with a wrist shot 35 seconds later to put Buffalo ahead 1-0.
Austin Czarnik made it 1-1 at 10:38 and Larkin gave the Red Wings a 2-1 lead with a power-play goal at 15:05.
Henri Jokiharju tied it 2-2 at 17:10, and Buffalo ended up with a four-minute power play for a scrum that took place after the goal.
Cozens made it 3-2 at 19:08, two seconds before the end of the first penalty, to reach 30 goals for the first time.
"Thirty is a great individual accomplishment, but my teammates deserve most of the credit, and we've got more important things to worry about right now," Cozens said.

The Red Wings killed the second penalty, but Zemgus Girgensons put the Sabres up 4-2 at 1:33 of the second period.
Alex Chiasson brought Detroit within 4-3 with a power-play goal at 14:04, and rookie Simon Edvinsson tied it 4-4 at 16:52 with his second NHL goal.
Jordan Greenway put the Sabres up 5-4 at 3:20 of the third period, and Cozens made it 6-4 at 4:32.
"We couldn't keep the puck out of our net, but we hung in there," Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde said. "That's a really good point, [but] I think we probably deserved both of them."
Husso stopped Power at point-blank range in overtime, and Levi made a pad save on Berggren with five seconds left.
"We had the puck for most of the overtime, but I knew they were going to get one good chance," Levi said. "[Berggren] got the breakaway, but our defense moved him over to one side, so I could seal the post and get my pad on it."
Levi, playing his third NHL game, was facing 3-on-3 overtime and the shootout for the first time.
"I don't scout shootouts, because as soon as you start expecting someone to make a certain move, you're going to get caught by something else," he said. "It was pretty crazy to stop Dylan Larkin 1-on-1 to win my first one."
NOTES: Buffalo went 4-0-0 against Detroit this season, outscoring them 24-16. Thompson had nine points (four goals, five assists), and Cozens had seven (five goals, two assists). … Larkin's goal was his 32nd, matching his NHL career high from 2018-19. His 46 assists are one short of his total from 2017-18, and he is two points shy of reaching 80 for the first time.