Zacha lifts Devils past Sabres in OT; Eichel late scratch with injury

BUFFALO -- Pavel Zacha scored at 1:17 of overtime and had two assists to help the New Jersey Devils defeat the Buffalo Sabres 4-3 at KeyBank Center on Thursday.

Jesper Bratt, Miles Wood and Nico Hischier scored for the Devils (7-6-2), who ended a three-game losing streak. Mackenzie Blackwood made 29 saves.
Zacha has three goals and seven assists in an NHL career-high eight-game point streak.
"On our line we all have different skills. When we're working together it's great," Zacha said. "Just have to use my shot. I've been working on it every summer, every season. That was something mentally that I had to focus on this offseason and come into the season, keep using it more."

Riley Sheahan, Casey Mittelstadt and Sam Reinhart scored for the Sabres (6-8-3). Carter Hutton made 21 saves in relief of Linus Ullmark, who left the game after the first period with a lower-body injury. Ullmark made 15 saves.
"It's tough, he's been amazing," Sheahan said of Ullmark. "Up to this point, I mean, he's made some unreal saves. He battles so hard, definitely we're confident with him back there. [Hutton] is awesome, having him back there, there's a lot of confidence. He's such a great player, great person. We have two special goaltenders."
Sabres captain Jack Eichel was a late scratch with a lower-body injury.
"Jack's lower-body complication showed up in the warmup," Buffalo coach Ralph Krueger said. "It was not related to him not skating this morning. It definitely caught us all by surprise. The first diagnosis on it is day to day. The feeling he had, that there was a risk of putting him into the game situation. It's being assessed tonight, it's going to be assessed tomorrow."

Sheahan gave the Sabres a 1-0 lead when, with his back to the net, his backhand shot from the left circle slid glove side by Blackwood at 6:28 of the first period.
"I just tried to kind of get it into a shooting position," Sheahan said. "There was a defenseman there blocking the forehand side, so I just tried to use my body to protect it."
Bratt skated around Sabres defenseman Matt Irwin into the slot to tie it 1-1 at 5:27 of the second period.
Mittelstadt made it 2-1 when he redirected a pass from Eric Staal in front of the net on the power play at 8:03.

With Taylor Hall serving a double minor for high-sticking, Wood tied it 2-2 on the first half of the power play from the right side of the net at 4:25.
"We knew we needed a momentum change. We knew that we needed at least one goal," Devils coach Lindy Ruff said. "We were talking about trying to get two, but to get the one by [Wood] was a big goal. … It put momentum in the right place because we've had some power-play opportunities that really turned the momentum the other way, and tonight I thought that four-minute, we were able to turn some of the momentum and put it on our side."

Hischier put the Devils ahead 3-2 at 6:45 after the power play expired, getting his backhand on a loose puck in front of the net for his first goal of the season. He was named Devils captain on Saturday, the same day he made his season debut after a foot injury and being in the NHL COVID-19 protocol.
"It felt good, obviously, to get my first one, especially when I got robbed there in the first period." Hischier said. "But the win feels even better. That's what I was looking for."

Reinhart redirected a tape-to-tape pass from Hall into the right side of the net to tie it 3-3 on the power play at 15:30.
"I think under all the circumstances I'm really proud of the group being able to get us into overtime," Krueger said. "I think it's too bad we didn't get a line change there at about the 30-, 40-second mark. We could have done better in overtime. But getting to overtime with all the chaos that was going on in and during the game, I thought the guys stuck with it."
Ruff said, "We needed the two points. We didn't want this game to slip away, and I thought we stayed with it. Disappointing to give up the penalty-killing goal that we gave up to allow them to tie it, but overall, to get the two points was crucial for us."
NOTES: Devils forward Jack Hughes had eight shots on goal to match an NHL career-high set Jan. 27, 2020 at the Ottawa Senators. … Krueger did not have an update on the severity of Ullmark's injury. ... Krueger earlier Thursday revealed that Eichel was injured prior to training camp, which set him back to start the season. It is not known if this injury is related.