Sabres' win streak snapped in road loss to Hurricanes

RALEIGH N.C. - Don Granato spoke Friday morning about the long-term benefits of the Sabres' upcoming schedule, a run of contests against the NHL's top teams beginning with back-to-back road games at Carolina and Tampa Bay.
The Sabres started strong and played a tightly contested game to start the run, a 5-3 loss to the Hurricanes inside PNC Arena. The Sabres led during the first period and were within one goal of the Hurricanes until Jesperi Kotkaniemi made it 4-2 with 10:38 remaining in the third.
"Like I said prior to the game, these are the games you want to play," Granato said. "Against top players, in a building like this with the energy, you learn from mistakes. The passion was there, the effort was there. Like I said, some guys just didn't have their normal game."
The loss snapped a three-game winning streak for the Sabres, who fell to 7-4-0 this season.
Jacob Bryson and Victor Olofsson scored first-period goals for the Sabres. Rasmus Dahlin added a goal just before the final horn sounded to end the third. Craig Anderson made 28 saves.

How it happened

PERIOD 1
Bryson scored just 28 seconds into an eventful first period that saw the teams trade four goals while taking a combined six penalties.

Sebastian Aho scored both goals for the Hurricanes, erasing deficits of 1-0 and 2-1. Victor Olofsson scored the second goal for the Sabres, a one-timer from high in the slot.

PERIOD 2
Aho delivered a turn-around feed across the net to Martin Necas, who broke the 2-2 tie just 4:03 into the period.
The two teams traded periods of momentum for the remainder of the period. Shots were 12-9, Hurricanes. Scoring chances were 12-11 in favor of the Hurricanes, according to Natural Stat Trick. Both teams had two power plays, but the 3-2 score held into intermission.
"The penalty situation was quite erratic," Granato said. "It broke up rhythm. Obviously it was just a challenging component tonight, unfortunately."
PERIOD 3
Necas delivered a spinning pass to Kotkaniemi with 10:38 remaining to increase the Carolina lead to 4-2. Aho completed the hat trick with 2:14 when he buried the puck into an empty net.
Dahlin scored a power-play goal with 0.1 seconds remaining for his seventh goal and 15th point of the season.

What we learned

1.Olofsson scored his team-leading ninth goal of the season, moving him into sole possession of fourth place in the NHL. Only Connor McDavid (12), Bo Horvat (10), and Erik Karlsson (10) have more.
2. Dahlin received a double-minor penalty after an altercation with Kotkaniemi during the first period. He responded with a dynamic offensive performance, finishing with a game-high eight shots and 11 attempts in 26:58.
"We're asking a lot of him obviously with who we're missing back there, three big key guys," Granato said, referencing injured defensemen Henri Jokiharju, Ilya Lyubushkin, and Mattias Samuelsson. "But he loves it. He loves the challenge. It's pushing him to be even better, the way he's responding. So I'm very impressed with him once again."
3.The Sabres conclude the road set against the three-time reigning Eastern Conference champion Lightning on Saturday, then host the NHL's current top two teams - Vegas and Boston - next week at KeyBank Center.
"We're gonna play some tough teams here," Olofsson said. "I think this was a good test for us to kind of know what we've got to be ready for here."
4.The Sabres players and members of the team's support staff had their moms and other guests in attendance for the second straight game. The guests will travel with the team for their game in Tampa on Saturday.

Up next

The road trip concludes Saturday in Tampa. Coverage on MSG begins at 6:30 p.m.
The puck drops at 7 on MSG and WGR 550.