Levi opens preseason with 25 saves in win over Blue Jackets

If you watched the Sabres’ preseason game on Monday night, you might’ve thought you traveled into the past when you saw a goalkeeper donning brown pads in the style of Roger Crozier or Tom Barrasso.

Devon Levi has worn the throwback set to start training camp as he awaits the arrival of his white, modern-style gear. So far, the temporary pads have treated the third-year goalkeeper well.

Levi made 25 saves en route to a 6-1 Sabres win against the Columbus Blue Jackets at KeyBank Center, with his only goal allowed coming 12 minutes into the game.

“It was great,” Levi said. “I think the boys played really well. It was great to be back into a game. Just the competitiveness, just reading plays. You don’t really see that in summer skates. Even in scrimmages, it’s more or less like that, but you can’t replicate a real game.”

Following Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen’s emergence as the Sabres’ starting goaltender last season, Levi spent much of the latter half of his rookie year in Rochester. He found a rhythm within that time, leading qualified AHL goaltenders with a .927 save percentage.

He came back to play a trio of games with the Sabres in March, during which he allowed just five goals on 95 shots, a .947 save percentage. He those three games were the best he felt all season and credited his development in Rochester.

“Everything outside of the rink was in place,” Levi said Friday of his time in the AHL. “I was able to be comfortable and I just found a rhythm. I was playing a lot, I was able to get into flow and I was having fun. The boys were unreal in (Rochester). They were an awesome team to play for.”

Levi split his time during the summer between on and off-ice activities, spending time in the gym as well as working with his goaltending coach.

“I was able to really home in some things off the ice that I wanted to work in,” Levi said on Friday. “With a little bit of time off the ice in the beginning of the summer, it gives you an opportunity to spend more time in the gym, work the strength off the ice. Just focusing on being goalie strong.”

Following Levi’s performance on Monday, as well as seeing his play in practice, Ruff reiterated his confidence in Levi’s ability to form an effective tandem with Luukkonen.

“I feel I have two goaltenders that are extremely dialed in, and I thought he made probably four or five really clutch saves for us that you need,” Ruff said. “When your team isn’t playing well, he’s the guy that can change the momentum, and I thought he gave us a couple of those saves at key times that allowed us to get in a position to start taking it back to them.”

Here are more notes from the win on Monday night:

1. With Alex Tuch getting the game off, Peyton Krebs played on the right wing alongside JJ Peterka and Tage Thompson and finished with a goal and an assist.

Krebs beat the Columbus goaltender clean to his glove side with a shot on the rush following a one-touch pass over the blue line from Thompson. The fourth-year forward talked about the opportunity to play on the first line postgame.

“I’m going to play the same way whenever I am,” Krebs said. “Bring my work ethic, try to dish the puck around. I think it shows that I can play there but just got to keep momentum going from there and keep working.”

2. Ryan McLeod and Jason Zucker made their preseason Sabres debuts on a line with Jordan Greenway at left wing. McLeod talked after the game about the buy-in that Ruff has from the team, as well as the value that his line, especially Greenway, provides to the team.

“He’s a huge body,” McLeod said. “I think he protects the puck really well. He lets us buzz around and he anchors himself down there and we just throw it down and he opens the ice up for us. I think we have the makings for a really good line so just have to keep building.”

3. Zach Benson had a goal and an assist in the victory while Owen Power and Dylan Cozens each scored their second goals of the preseason. Aube-Kubel and Mattias Samuelsson also scored goals.

4. Rasmus Dahlin skated with a small group of players Monday morning and is nearing a return to practice, Ruff said. Dahlin has not practiced with the team since sustaining an injury during the opening session last Wednesday.

“Dahlin will in all likelihood skate with us, maybe in a non-contact tomorrow,” Ruff said. “But he’s doing really good. He’s itching to get back in. For us, it’s making sure that when we put him back in or get him back in in a practice, that he’s ready to roll. But he’s real close to playing.”

5. Monday’s preseason game was the last in which the Sabres will have their full team together for the preseason. Tomorrow, the NHL squad will travel to Europe to play EHC Red Bull Munich in an exhibition on Friday to start the NHL Global Series.

The remaining players who do not travel to Europe will play a preseason game Tuesday in Pittsburgh at 7 p.m. That game will be streamed live on Sabres.com.