Sabres score nine in win against Senators

BUFFALO --Jason Pominville scored two goals and had an assist for the Buffalo Sabres in a 9-2 win against the Ottawa Senators at KeyBank Center on Saturday.

Pominville was honored prior to the game for playing in his 1,000th NHL game on Thursday (4-2 loss at the Senators) and was presented with a silver sabre by Sabres owners Terry and Kim Pegula.
"We definitely responded the right way," said Pominville, who extended his point streak to seven games (seven goals, six assists). "We had a great third in Ottawa and wanted to play in the offensive]*
Jeff Skinner had two goals and an assist, and Jack Eichel had three assists for the Sabres (7-5-2), who ended a three-game losing streak. Linus Ullmark made 27 saves.
Skinner has 16 points (nine goals, seven assists) in his past 10 games; Eichel has 12 points (one goal, 11 assists) in his past seven games.

"I think we've just been getting more and more familiar with each other every day," Eichel said. The two of them are really good around the net. I think I'm more of a distribute-first guy, and I think it's just been working out, the three of us together. When we're taking care of the puck and we're getting it in and we're playing in their end and cycling it, I think we've had a lot of success."
The nine goals were the most the Sabres have scored since a 10-2 win at the Edmonton Oilers on Jan. 27, 2009; it was the most they've scored in a home game since a 10-1 win against the Atlanta Thrashers on Jan. 18, 2008.
Max McCormick and Cody Ceci scored for the Senators (5-6-2), who are 1-4-1 in their past six games after a three-game winning streak. Craig Anderson allowed three goals on 10 shots before he was replaced in the first period by Mike McKenna (25 saves).
"We're obviously not the first team to do it, we're obviously not going to be the last, but those can't happen more than once in a season let alone a week," Mark Stone said. "In the Arizona game (a 5-1 loss on Tuesday) and this game, we were just flat coming out of the gate. Didn't give ourselves a chance from the opening puck drop."

Kyle Okposo made it 1-0 at 5:04 of the first period. Skinner put the Sabres up 2-0 at 6:28, and Pominville extended the lead to 3-0 when he scored on a rebound at 14:25.
Thirteen seconds after Skinner scored on the power play to make it 4-0 at 5:06 of the second period, Zemgus Girgensons gave the Sabres a 5-0 lead with his first of the season at 5:19.
"Three goals, you can come back from that but I didn't want to use my timeout; I might need it later and we've got a game tomorrow," Senators coach Guy Boucher said. "So I saved [Anderson] for tomorrow, and later on when I called timeout, it was just because there was no more game anymore. We wouldn't have scored that many goals."
McCormick scored at 6:37 of the second to make it 5-1.
Pominville made it 6-1 at 7:06 and Conor Sheary's first goal since Oct. 13 put the Sabres ahead 7-1 at 7:48.

Patrik Berglund gave the Sabres an 8-1 lead at 5:41 of the third period. Casey Mittelstadt scored to make it 9-1 at 13:13, and Ceci made it 9-2 at 14:14.
"We've been making strides and it's been a lot of fun to see a lot of growth through the team," Pominville said.

They said it

"The fact that their emotional level was so high when they started the game and we weren't ready for that, and that's something to really learn from. We do have a young group but collectively we tried to counteract their drive and their emotional level by doing different things we don't normally do, which put us in trouble." --Senators coach Guy Boucher
"The best part was the fans were really into it. There was just a buzz in the arena that I haven't (felt) since I've been here. I mean, that was really cool, just the chants, the 'Sweet Caroline' going at the end. That was pretty sweet."-- Sabres forward Kyle Okposo

Need to know

Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin left in the second period and did not return but is traveling with the team for the game against the New York Rangers on Sunday. ... Since they began playing together on Oct. 20, Skinner (13 points), Pominville (13 points) and Eichel (12 points) are the top three scorers in the NHL. ... Skinner's nine goals through the first 14 games this season are tied with Miroslav Satan for third-most in Buffalo history after Rick Vaive (12), Richard Martin (10), and Wilf Paiement (10). … The Sabres record for fastest two goals is four seconds, set by Lee Fogolin Jr. and Don Luce against the California Seals on Oct. 17, 1974.

What's next

Senators:Host the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday (7 p.m. ET, NHLN, SN, TVAS, SUN, NHL.TV)
Sabres: At the New York Rangers on Sunday (7:30 p.m. ET, MSG+, MSG-B, NHL.TV)