At The Final Horn: Sabres 4 - Devils 1

The Buffalo Sabres made sure their lead did not slip away Tuesday night against the New Jersey Devils.
Buffalo scored a pair of early goals in the third period and hung in down the stretch en route to a 4-1 win over the Devils at Prudential Center.
Victor Olofsson, Rasmus Asplund, Dylan Cozens and Cody Eakin all tallied for Buffalo. Linus Ullmark made 41 saves and was just 27.9 seconds away from recording his first shutout of the season
With two assists, Sam Reinhart extended his point streak to four games (3+3).

Olofsson leads the team with seven goals and 14 points. With six power-play goals on the season, he trailed only Joe Pavelski and Auston Matthews for the league-lead at game's end. His 12 power-play points tied for second in the NHL.
Buffalo put 36 shots on Mackenzie Blackwood over the course of the game. Nikita Gusev scored for the Devils.
The Sabres end their four-game road trip with a 2-2-0 record. Both wins came over New Jersey.

What happened

No goals were scored in the first period and the clubs traded power-play opportunities in the second.
Buffalo was afforded the first chance on the power play 3:17 into the second and while they generated only one shot on goal, both Jack Eichel and Reinhart hit the post as the Sabres maintained possession in the Devils end for the full two minutes.
The Devils went on the man advantage at the 5:45 mark of the middle frame and Riley Sheahan in particular did a good job to kill it off.
Buffalo then took the lead when they went back on the power play minutes later. Eichel had hit the post earlier in the advantage, but Olofsson was able to finish the job, potting one with 7 seconds left in the power play and 9:40 remaining in the period.
At the 5:16 mark of the third period, Asplund tipped a high Reinhart shot out of the air and into the back of the net to make it 2-0.
Hall fed Cozens from behind the net just 1:34 later to put Buffalo ahead by three.
The Devils had one final opportunity on the power play with 2:50 left in regulation. Ullmark made a sprawling desperate glove save with 1:05 remaining on P.K. Subban to preserve the shutout, but after a sequence of heavy pressure (and with the extra attacker), the Devils finally put one in with 27.9 seconds left.
Eakin's goal - his first as a Sabre - was an empty netter just before time expired to make it 4-1.

Roll the highlight film

Watch Asplund's goal…

And why not? Here's Cozen's goal soon after:

Worth mentioning

Defenseman Jacob Bryson made his NHL debut tonight. Bryson, a fourth-round pick in 2017, skated 17:42, including a team-high 7:24 in the first period. He hit the post on the rush late in the first period on a feed from Taylor Hall.
Bryson, 23, recorded 27 points (4+23) in 61 games in his rookie season with the Amerks in 2019-20. He scored all four of his goals during the final 10 games of the year.
The Sabres are dealing with several injuries on their blue line.
Defenseman Will Borgen will miss six-to-eight weeks (and Krueger said possibly the season) as he recovers from a broken right arm. He had surgery today. Jake McCabe will be out six-to-eight months after sustaining a right knee injury. And Rasmus Ristolainen is out indefinitely as he recovers from sever COVID-related symptoms.
Bryson and Asplund were recalled from the taxi squad before the game. Defenseman Brandon Davidson was loaned to the taxi squad and goaltender Dustin Tokarski was reassigned to the Rochester Americans. Asplund replaced an injured Tobias Rieder in the lineup.

Coming up

The Sabres and Devils will meet again on Thursday at KeyBank Center. Faceoff is set for 7 p.m. on MSG and WGR 550 with pregame coverage on MSG kicking things off at 6:30.
The game will mark the debut of Buffalo's Reverse Retro jerseys.