At The Final Horn | Skinner's 2-goal game leads Sabres over Predators

Jeff Skinner scored twice for the 499th and 500th points of his NHL career in the Buffalo Sabres' 4-1 win over the Nashville Predators on Thursday.
Aaron Dell stopped 29 shots to earn his first win of the season. Mark Jankowski and Vinnie Hinostroza also scored for the Sabres, who snapped an 0-4-2 skid with the victory at Bridgestone Arena.
Matt Duchene scored for Nashville to tie it up 1-1, but Skinner scored two in a row to put Buffalo ahead for good. Juuse Saros made 17 saves for Nashville. The Predators were 8-1-1 in their last 10 games and riding a five-game win streak heading into the contest.
Buffalo's power play finished 1-for-4 while the penalty kill was 3-for-4.

How it happened

Jankowski was credited with Buffalo's opening goal 5:30 into the game after Predators defenseman Matt Benning tried to collect a loose puck in front of the net and ended up putting it under the pads of Saros and over the goal line.
Jankowski had redirected a point shot from Pysyk to get the puck on goal and force the rebound that Benning couldn't handle.
Forty-two seconds into the second period, the Predators thought they scored while on a delayed penalty, but the play turned out to be offside, taking the goal off the board following video replay. Buffalo killed off the ensuing power play.
Nashville eventually got back on the board when Duchene scored on the power play with 6:48
From the right wing corner, Kyle Okposo found Dylan Cozens at the top of the slot and Cozens' rebound was put home by Skinner with 1:42 to play in the second period to put the Sabres back in the lead.
The Sabres went ahead 3-1 at the 7:59 mark of the third when Skinner spun around to pick up the puck in the neutral zone, skated in and beat Saros for his second of the night.
With 1:14 left, Hinostroza potted one into an empty net.

Roll the highlight film

Here's Skinner's second of the night. He now has four goals over the past four games and a team-leading 13 on the season:

Worthy of a mention

Before the game, the Sabres activated forwards Kyle Okposo and Alex Tuch off the NHL's COVID-19 Protocol and reassigned forward Brett Murray to the taxi squad.
The last game played for both Okposo and Tuch came back on January 1.
Robert Hagg also returned to the lineup after missing the past seven games with a lower-body injury.

Coming up

The team's road trip concludes Saturday night in Detroit. Faceoff against the Red Wings is set for 7 p.m. on MSG and The Bet 1520 AM. Pregame coverage on MSG begins at 6:30.