At The Final Horn: Sabres 2 - Islanders 5

The Buffalo Sabres played their fifth game against the New York Islanders of the season Saturday afternoon and the result was the same. New York won again, this time by a score of 5-2.
The Islanders scored four goals in the second period to pull ahead. Mathew Barzal, Brock Nelson, Cal Clutterbuck and Scott Mayfield put the Islanders on the board. Anders Lee added another one in the third period. Semyon Varlamov made 20 saves.
Sabres defenseman Jacob Bryson scored the first goal of his NHL career. Sam Reinhart also scored for the Sabres. Carter Hutton made 24 saves in net.
Buffalo is 0-3-0 so far on the current five-game road trip and 0-5-1 over the last six games.
The Islanders are 5-0-0 against the Sabres this season and have outscored Buffalo 19-7. Overall, they're now 9-0-2 at home this year.

What happened

Buffalo opened the scoring thanks to Bryson's goal. The Sabres sustained some early pressure and along the blue line, captain Eichel worked the puck to Brandon Montour who dished it to Bryson. From the left point, Bryson stepped up and wristed a shot through traffic off the inside of the right goal post and in to put Buffalo up 1-0.
The Islanders scored a pair of goals 1:25 apart in the second period to take a 2-1 lead.
First, Barzal scored perhaps one of the best goals we'll see all season 3:51 into the second. After beating Rasmus Ristolainen in a footrace down the right wing, he pulled away from a falling Ristolainen and cut in on net all alone. As part of his deke, he pulled the puck back between his legs and tucked it in, just out of Hutton's reach.

Nelson's goal at the 5:26 mark came after the Islanders secured possession in the neutral zone. He then scored quickly in transition.
Clutterbuck made it 3-1 when he one-timed a shot in while all alone in front 8:45 into the second.
The Islanders made Buffalo pay again with 4:31 remaining after some heavy pressure in the Sabres end. Mayfield accepted a cross-ice pass and roofed one in past Hutton for the Islanders' fourth goal of the period.
Buffalo entered the third on the power play and Buffalo used that advantage to maintain zone time, setting up Reinhart's goal 52 seconds in. Rasmus Dahlin threw a shot on goal from the point and Reinhart deflected it in for his team-leading ninth goal of the season.
The Islanders regained their three-goal lead at the 2:15 mark of the third when Lee won a battle in front for two attempts, with the second one being successful.

Roll the highlight film

Watch Bryson score his goal here:

Worth mentioning

Bryson is the third player in Sabres history to score the first goal of his NHL career in the opening minute of a game, according to
@PR_NHL
.
The others? Danny Gare (0:18 in on October 10, 1974) and Alexander Mogilny (0:20 in on October 5, 1989).

Coming up

The three-game series against the Islanders comes to an end tomorrow. Faceoff from Nassau Coliseum is scheduled for noon on NBC. Dan Dunleavy and Rob Ray will call the action on WGR 550.
Buffalo's five-game road trip will conclude Tuesday night in Philadelphia.