‘This is a good step’ | Full-team effort leads Sabres to comeback win over Vegas

Kept alive by Rasmus Dahlin’s game-tying goal with 14 seconds left in regulation, the Buffalo Sabres earned a 4-3 shootout victory over the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday at KeyBank Center.

The Sabres, who trailed 2-0 in the back half of the second period, outplayed Vegas for much of the afternoon and, undeterred by some untimely goals against, battled back for a thrilling victory.

Prior to his last-minute heroics, Dahlin thought he’d cost Buffalo the game with an unsuccessful clearing attempt to center ice. Jack Eichel picked off the pass, entered the offensive zone and, with 2:33 remaining, poked in a rebound to give Vegas a 3-2 lead. The shift dropped Dahlin to minus-three on the afternoon.

“All the chances they had was from my [mess]-ups,” Buffalo’s captain said; he atoned for those errors a few minutes later, though.

With Sabres goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen pulled, Golden Knights forward Tomas Hertl carried the puck up ice with a lane to the empty net. But he attempted an ill-advised backwards pass to Eichel, the former Sabre who’d been booed all afternoon, and set Buffalo up with an offensive-zone faceoff.

Coach Lindy Ruff called his timeout with 28 seconds on the clock and implored the Sabres to get the puck to the net. Dahlin did just that, rocketing a one timer from up high past Vegas goalie Adin Hill. Tage Thompson earned a secondary assist on the goal, having wrestled the puck away from Mark Stone and set up Bowen Byram for the feed to Dahlin.

“Unbelievable play by Tage and Bo to keep the puck in, and Bo made a great pass to me, and it was just for me to shoot it,” said Dahlin, who also scored a game-tying, 6-on-5 goal March 3 in Montreal and is up to 12 goals this season.

“I thought we had a great play up top and the screen by (Alex) Tuch on the goal was probably the most important factor,” Ruff said. “The goalie couldn’t see it, Dahls hit his mark and we ended up tying the hockey game.”

Another familiar face, forward Victor Olofsson, opened the shootout scoring for Vegas. But Jack Quinn and Tuch answered with goals for the Sabres, and Luukkonen denied Eichel and Pavel Dorofeyev to secure the victory.

Here’s more from the win.

1. The game heated up midway through the second period, when Brett Howden crushed Sabres forward Jiri Kulich with a high hit. Peyton Krebs immediately came to the defense of his rookie linemate, but his fighting Howden resulted in additional 10-minute misconduct and two-minute instigator penalties.

“That is what we need every response, every instance,” Ruff said. “It was missing earlier in the year – the Devil game. That’s an automatic in, and I love what Krebs did.”

And moments after Buffalo killed off the Vegas power play, Jordan Greenway fought Keegan Kolesar in response to a series of cross checks.

“Those were big boosts for us, and I think that stuff goes a really long way, so it was great to see,” added Jason Zucker.

“You can clearly see we’re a bit of a different team now with Krebs today, (and) Greener,” Dahlin said. “We’re stepping up for each other. We look like a real team now. This is the start of something good, I think.”

Shortly after those bouts, however, in a net-front scramble around Luukkonen, Dorofeyev scored to extend the Golden Knights’ lead to 2-0. The Sabres needed just seven seconds to strike back. Ryan McLeod won the ensuing faceoff, corralled Jacob Bryson’s stretch pass on the fly and beat Hill five-hole to get Buffalo on the board.

“Just a faceoff play we draw up a bit (but) we don’t really get to execute too much,” said McLeod. “Just tried to push five-hole; I’ve been working on that shot the last little while and it went in.”

While McLeod’s speed and shot led to that goal, his forechecking ability produced Buffalo’s third-period, game-tying tally. Connor Clifton had drawn a trip to send the Sabres to a power play; as Vegas defenseman Alex Pietrangelo attempted a clear from behind the goal line, McLeod swooped in to disrupt the pass. The puck fluttered directly to Zucker in the slot, who settled it with his glove and ripped a top-shelf shot past Hill.

“If [Pietrangelo] has another two seconds or another second to make a play, it’s probably going down the ice,” Zucker said. "I thought it was great by Clouder, and Tuchy was right there too. So, all the credit to them on that.”

2. By most measures, the Sabres vastly outplayed the Pacific Division-leading Golden Knights. Buffalo led 37-19 in shots and 69-48 in shot attempts, per Natural Stat Trick.

“We did a lot of good things in the game, starting with managing the puck throughout the game,” Ruff said. “Still made a couple big mistakes with the puck, but 90 percent of it gives you a chance to beat a good team.”

Ruff also credited his team for winning 72 percent of faceoffs (48 of 67), two of which led directly to McLeod and Dahlin's goals.

Buffalo’s last two wins, now, have come against highly skilled, playoff-bound teams in Edmonton and Vegas; McLeod noted postgame that the Sabres seem to get up for these tough matchups. Complete efforts like Saturday’s – against all teams, not just the best – will be key to more consistent success going forward.

“We’re trying to focus on how we want to finish the season as a team, and (on) building our group,” echoed Zucker. “And I think this is a good step. Especially after the game in Detroit, I thought this was a great response, and now we have to follow it up.”

3. McLeod skated 22:05, won 16 of 20 faceoffs and scored his 15th goal of the season, extending a career high. While he wasn’t credited with an assist on Zucker’s goal, he certainly deserved one. And the Sabres outshot Vegas by a 16-4 margin – and outscored them 3-0 – during McLeod’s all-strengths ice time.

“He’s playing so good right now – he’s a huge piece for us,” Dahlin said.

McLeod’s up to 36 points this season, which ranks sixth on the team. He began his career behind Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl on Edmonton's center depth chart. In his first season with the Sabres, McLeod has lived up to his reputation as a defensively responsible forward while playing up and down the lineup and emerging as a skilled scorer, too. Saturday, he centered Zach Benson and Zucker on the second line.

“It’s fun to have that role and be relied upon to add offense,” he said. “I just try to roll with it as much as I can and keep growing.”

4. Kulich didn’t return after absorbing that second-period hit and requiring help down the tunnel.

“He’s doing pretty good,” Ruff said. “I’ve talked to him. Tomorrow will be a different story, but overall, he’s doing pretty good.”

The Sabres were also without forwards JJ Peterka (lower body) and Josh Norris (undisclosed). Read more about their injuries here.

Tyson Kozak, recalled from Rochester on Friday, entered the lineup and issued two hits in 9:04 of ice time.

Up next

The Sabres' four-game road trip begins Monday at Boston. Coverage on MSG begins at 6:30 p.m. with puck drop scheduled for 7.