WHAT'S NEXT
The Oilers are in Vancouver on Wednesday to face the Canucks. The game can be seen on Sportsnet West and heard on the Oilers Radio Network, including 630 CHED. Puck drop is 8:08 p.m. MST.
POST-GAME UPDATES
Inside The Oilers Blog
Casey Mittelstadt opened the scoring a minute in before the Oilers answered thrice in quick succession, with Zack Kassian scoring twice and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins notching his 15th goal of the season.
"The first one was a lucky bounce, plain and simple, and the second one was a good play by [Tobias Rieder]," Kassian said post-game. "I don't think we've changed much in the way we played. We ended up getting a few bounces and the goals went in. Perfect."
Milan Lucic had a two-goal night, extending a productive goal-scoring spell for the forward to three goals in four games and three in the calendar year for 2019.
Buffalo are now winless in their last six road games.
"I've said it before that I'm not even going to talk or go into 2018, so lots to play for here in 2019 to get ourselves back into the mix," Lucic said. "It's about stringing a few games together here moving forward."
Mikko Koskinen made 41 saves and tallied an assist to improve to 13-8-1.
"We needed to win, and it didn't matter how it came," Koskinen said. "Of course scoring seven goals is big. Kass scored twice and Lucic got two big goals, but in the end it's only two points.
"Everyone needs to be good. Our okay is not good enough right now, so everybody needs to play at their best."
Before the first commercial break, the Oilers and Sabres had already done most of the work.
It took exactly one minute for the Sabres to take the lead when Mittelstadt's deflection off the shot from Conor Sheary eluded Koskinen, but the Oilers got it back when Kassian's net-bound shot 1:33 later took a fortunate redirection off the stick of defenceman Zach Bogosian.
Nugent-Hopkins had the Oilers ahead 50 seconds later, before Kassian capped off three goals in 1:55 for the home side with his second of the game to extend the lead off the feed from Rieder.