ST. LOUIS – Jason Zucker felt the Buffalo Sabres were not at their best on Sunday – and that was a good thing, given the result.
The Sabres played a patient, structured defensive game to weather pushes from the St. Louis Blues and bookended it with opportunistic special teams to win 4-2 at Enterprise Center, their third straight victory.
The manner in which they won – outshot 37-16 but victorious nonetheless – was a testament to strides made since their 13-game winless streak ended six days ago.
“I think the poise was good,” Zucker said. “I think a couple weeks ago, that would have been a really tough loss for us. We learned from it and (we’re) kind of finding what we call a ‘B-game.’ We definitely didn’t have our best, and I thought that was a good sign for us.”
The Sabres built a 2-0 lead on early goals from Peyton Krebs and Tage Thompson, but the Blues – who were 8-4-3 in their previous 15 games – responded with an active forecheck to apply pressure in the Buffalo zone.
St. Louis chipped away at the deficit with a first-period goal from Brayden Schenn, then tied the game when Nathan Walker buried a rebound at 5:56 of the third period.
Rather than let the moment compound into further adversity, the Sabres stuck to their plan until a strong shift from the line of Beck Malenstyn, Ryan McLeod, and Sam Lafferty resulted in a cross-checking penalty against the Blues. Zucker scored the winning goal on the ensuing power-play.
“We bent, but we didn’t break, and we held tough in our own end,” coach Lindy Ruff said.