At The Final Horn: Devils 3 - Sabres 4 (SO)

The Buffalo Sabres extended their point streak to five games with a 4-3 shootout win over the New Jersey Devils on Saturday at KeyBank Center.
Eric Staal, Tobias Rieder, and Victor Olofsson scored for Buffalo, and Jack Eichel scored the only goal in the shootout.
Linus Ullmark made 31 saves plus three more in the shootout.
Staal now has points in four of the last five games (3+1), and five of the last seven (3+2).
Ty Smith, Andreas Johnsson and Janne Kuokkanen were New Jersey's goal scorers. Scott Wedgewood stopped 27 of Buffalo's shots.
Buffalo's power play went 1-for-4 on the night while the penalty kill was 4-for-5.

What happened

With 7:45 remaining in the opening period and both Eric Staal and Brandon Montour in the box, the Sabres were faced with a 5-on-3 Devils power play.
Through the strong play primarily of Curtis Lazar, Jake McCabe and Rasmus Ristolainen, New Jersey didn't even register a shot on goal in the full two minutes despite 1:40 of zone time at the start of the man advantage. Shots were 5-1 in the Buffalo's favor at that point.
The Sabres opened the second period with two power plays in the first eight minutes, but the Devils were able to kill them both off.
Between the power plays, the Devils had a few great chances, including a shot by defenseman Damon Severson that ran off the crossbar 3:51 into the second.
Buffalo finally broke through when Staal scored at the 9:03 mark of the second. On a nice passing play entering the zone, defenseman Brandon Montour passed the puck to Taylor Hall who then gave it to Staal. The veteran center wristed one off the post and in from between the top of the faceoff circles to give Buffalo a 1-0 lead.
The Devils tied it with just 1:25 left in the second when Smith's shot made its way in through traffic on the power play.
The third period turned out to be a wild one with four goals scored between the two clubs.
The Devils scored early with Johnsson's snipe over Ullmark's shoulder 1:37 into the period. Then Rieder put one in 41 seconds later for his third of the season after some nice work from Cody Eakin behind the net.
Olofsson's goal gave the Sabres the lead back with his wrister on the power play with 9:02 left in regulation. However, the Devils didn't quit and with 5:19 remaining, Kuokkanen was able to knock one in short side to make it a 3-3 game.
Olofsson rang one off the left post with 1:54 remaining and Buffalo immediately went back on the power play following the stoppage. However, they weren't able to convert, forcing overtime.
Eichel scored in the top of the first round of the shootout and Ullmark stopped all three shots he saw.

Worth a mention

Tage Thompson returned to the lineup after being a healthy scratch the past three games. Sam Reinhart did not play due to an upper-body injury and Thompson played on a line with Jack Eichel and Victor Olofsson. Reinhart is considered day-to-day and could play tomorrow.
The Devils were without forward Nico Hischier (leg), goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood and forward Travis Zajac due to being on the COVID-19 protocol list, and goaltender Aaron Dell and defenseman Sami Vatanen, who are awaiting the completion of the visa and quarantine process.

Roll the highlight film

Here's Olofsson's goal that put Buffalo ahead midway through the third:

Coming up

The series concludes with another afternoon game at KeyBank Center. Faceoff between the Sabres and Devils is scheduled for 1 p.m. on MSG and WGR 550. Pregame coverage on MSG will start at 12:30.
It will be the final contest of the four-game homestand.