'Pure joy' | Peterka nets 1st NHL goal in opening night victory

JJ Peterka was still elated during his postgame interview, hours after his first NHL goal sparked the Buffalo Sabres' offense in their season-opening win over the Ottawa Senators.
"Just pure joy," the 20-year-old said, flashing a smile that fans might expect to see more often.
Peterka spoke for himself, though he could have been describing any number of people inside KeyBank Center for Buffalo's 4-1 victory on Thursday.
The emotion certainly could have applied to Craig Anderson, who - at 41 years old - made 35 saves to bail out his teammates early and lead the NHL's youngest roster to its first win.
It could have described the 15,364 energetic fans who poured inside the arena to see a team build on the promise it displayed last season, or the players who were so happy to hear them.
"You see that crowd and you just want to basically run through a wall," Rasmus Dahlin said. "We love having them here. We're gonna keep winning so they stay. We're very happy about it."
Here's the breakdown from Game 1.

How it happened

PERIOD 1
The Senators struck first in a tightly contested period, which ended with the Sabres owning a 19-18 edge in shot attempts and a 9-7 advantage in scoring chances.
Brady Tkachuk opened the scoring with 9:44 remaining, the product of a seeing-eyed breakout pass by defenseman Erik Brannstrom from deep in the Ottawa zone. Brannstrom's feed hit Drake Batherson in stride in the neutral zone and Batherson found Tkachuk in the slot on the rush.
PERIOD 2

Peterka scored Buffalo's first goal of the season 4:31 into the period, the product of a give-and-go play on the rush with linemate Dylan Cozens.
The Sabres added to the lead less than three minutes later thanks to a highlight-reel effort from Dahlin, who deked past a defender in his own zone before carrying the puck end to end, passing it off, and dashing to the front of the Senators net.
Peyton Krebs found Dahlin with a pass from behind the goal line.

Buffalo killed off a 5-on-3 power play that lasted 49 seconds to carry the 2-1 lead into the intermission.
PERIOD 3
The Sabres killed off a tripping penalty against Casey Mittelstadt to open the period, improving to 4-for-4 on the night. Anderson locked down the lead from that point on. His 11-save period included a diving poke check to rob Tim Stutzle.
Olofsson put the game away with two empty-net goals scored 15 seconds apart in the final minute of regulation.

What we learned

1.The Sabres held a pregame ceremony emceed by Rick Jeanneret, who is sticking around this season in the role of Broadcaster Emeritus. Read about his role here.

2. Once the ceremony concluded, the Sabres and Senators joined at center ice to honor the 10 victims who lost their lives in the racist mass shooting at Tops Friendly Markets in East Buffalo on May 14. Families of the victims were in attendance and welcomed with a video message from Okposo.
Watch the ceremony and Okposo's message below.

3. Peterka became the 14th player in Sabres history age 20 or younger to score in a season opener. That list includes Gilbert Perreault, Danny Gare, Tony McKegney, Lindy Ruff, Dave Andreychuk, and Alexander Mogilny.
4. Sabres coach Don Granato made it a point to get Peterka on the ice as much as possible in the preseason, having him play in five of the team's six exhibition games in preparation for his rookie NHL season. It paid off against the Senators, which Granato felt was Peterka's best game to date.
Peterka won battles in the corners, found lanes to the net, and finished with four shots on goal.
"The competition elevated, the competitive puck battles elevated, and I thought he was very determined in puck battles and showed a lot of strength," Granato said. "Once he won a battle through that, he opened up and saw lots of options and plays."

5. Shot attempts were 11-6 in favor of the Sabres with the line of Krebs, Cozens, and Peterka on the ice, which continued to build on the chemistry it developed through ample preseason reps.
Granato credited the performance in large part to the play of Cozens, the veteran of the trio at age 21.
"I thought he played a game tonight that was a man's game," Granato said. "He looked like a seasoned NHL vet. Strong on pucks, strong in faceoffs, and it was very impressive. He is a guy that will lead by example."
6. Anderson earned his sixth win in nine career games against his former team. Anderson is the Senators' all-time leader in wins and games played by a goalie. Brian Duff has more on Anderson's historic 20th season here.
7.The 41-year-old became the fourth-oldest goaltender in NHL history to win his team's season-opening game, behind Dominik Hasek (42 years, 247 days) Johnny Bower (42 years, 340 days) and Hugh Lehman (41 years, 21 days on Nov. 17, 1926).
8. Anderson is a considered a leader in the Sabres' dressing room for a variety of reasons - his calm demeanor in net and his willingness to share lessons from a 20-year career, but also his tendency to keep things light.
He displayed the latter after making multiple breakaway saves to keep the Sabres in the game through the first 40 minutes.
"I came in after the second, told the guys I'm 80% on breakaways," Anderson said. "So, I've stopped four, the fifth one's probably going in, so we should probably clean that up."

He was still keeping it light after the game. His response when asked about his diving poke check that robbed Tim Stutzle in the third period: "Yeah, I blacked out."
9.Members of the Buffalo Bills were in attendance - including Josh Allen, who sported an Alex Tuch jersey.

Up next

The Sabres host the Florida Panthers on Saturday afternoon. It will be "Hocktoberfest" at KeyBank Center, beginning with a fall-themed Party in the Plaza at 11 a.m. The first 10,000 fans inside the building will receive a magnet schedule.
Tickets are available here.
Coverage on MSG begins at 12:30 p.m. The puck drops at 1 on MSG and WGR 550.