DALLAS – Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 29 saves and the Buffalo Sabres erased two deficits, but Wyatt Johnston’s goal with 8:28 remaining stood as the difference in a 4-2 loss to the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center on Tuesday.
The loss snapped a three-game winning streak for both the Sabres and Luukkonen, who made 10 high-danger saves at 5-on-5 – his second-highest total this season, according to Natural Stat Trick.
“He’s fantastic,” Sabres forward Beck Malenstyn said. “We obviously have all the trust in the world with him in there. This last stretch he’s been absolutely phenomenal for us, but I think with that we need to find it to make his job a little bit easier, too.
“If he can make two or three big saves for us in the game, I like our odds of coming out on top, but he shouldn’t have to make six or seven. So, a great chance for us to look at those things, what we can do a little bit better to help him out a little bit more.”
Luukkonen made his first highlight-reel save 3:49 into the contest, after Roope Hintz corralled a loose puck off a blocked shot and made a quick feed to Johnston beside the net. Luukkonen reacted quickly, sprawling to his left to cover the attempt.
The Sabres’ goaltender made a variety of high-quality saves from that point on. He finished the first period having stopped all 12 of the shots he faced, including a 2-on-1 chance from Matt Duchene.
The opening minute of the second period saw Luukkonen stick with Jamie Benn as he drove through the crease to make a save with his right pad. A few minutes later, he used his blocker to turn away a one-timer taken from the slot by Logan Stankoven.
Dallas finally broke through with 10:11 remaining in the second period on a shot from Roope Hintz that appeared to deflect off the stick of Bowen Byram on its way to the net.
“We gave up too many chances and realistically you’re not going to win too many games playing that way,” Malenstyn said.
The Sabres showed resolve in tying the game on the very next shift, when Tage Thompson got to the net-front to deflect a shot from Byram behind goaltender Casey DeSmith. Jason Zucker crashed the blue paint to push the puck over the goal line.
Jason Robertson capitalized on a turnover and buried a point-blank attempt to put the Stars back in front early in the third period, but the Sabres responded quickly once again. This time, Sam Lafferty banked a shot on the rush off of Malenstyn’s skate in the crease.
“I thought there was pockets within the game that we played really well,” Malenstyn said. “… I thought we were able to do a good job of rolling over shift after shift, continuing to apply pressure, get looks on net. We have to be able to do that for longer periods of the game.”
Johnston’s winning goal was the end result of another turnover. Thomas Harley intercepted a pass along the boards and fired a quick shot, which Johnston deflected over Luukkonen’s shoulder. Esa Lindell added an empty-net goal late.
“It’s all the small details,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “I mean, the mistakes we made on the goals are just details and mistakes we can’t afford to make right now.”
The Sabres allowed 14 high-danger chances at even strength, their highest total against in the last seven games.
“Really unfortunate to lose that game,” Luukkonen said. “I felt like it wasn’t our best game, but we kind of held onto it and tried to defend. I feel like the last two games have been kind of similar in that way, and today we just didn’t get the result we wanted.”
Here’s more from the loss.
