Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen was in the starter's net this morning. He's earned the win in the Sabres' last two victories over the Capitals.
Here's how the lineup looked at the morning skate:
| March 15 at Washington |
| --- |
| LW | C | RW |
| 53 Jeff Skinner | 72 Tage Thompson | 89 Alex Tuch |
| 77 JJ Peterka | 24 Dylan Cozens | 22 Jack Quinn |
| 12 Jordan Greenway | 17 Tyson Jost | 37 Casey Mittelstadt |
| 28 Zemgus Girgensons | 19 Peyton Krebs | 21 Kyle Okposo |
| | | |
| LD | RD | G |
| 26 Rasmus Dahlin | 78 Jacob Bryson | 1 Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen |
| 25 Owen Power | 10 Henri Jokiharju | 41 Craig Anderson |
| 61 Riley Stillman | 46 Ilya Lyubushkin | |
| | | |
Henri Jokiharju played a career-high 27-minutes of ice time in the win over Toronto on Monday, helping alleviate the burden on Rasmus Dahlin as he played through a nagging upper-body injury. The Sabres made a conscious effort to limit Dahlin's ice time (he skated 21:18).
The Sabres outscored the Maple Leafs 2-0 and had a 4-0 advantage in high-danger shot attempts in 23:15 with Jokiharju on the ice at 5-on-5. Jokiharju's most frequent matchup: Auston Matthews.
"He just elevated, he raised the bar at the time we needed him to," Granato said.
Alex Tuch returned from an eight-game absence stemming from a lower-body injury against the Maple Leafs and scored two goals, including the game-winner.
Tuch has recorded six goals in his last six games dating back to February 15 against the Anaheim Ducks and has recorded nine points in that span.
Granato credited Tuch for elevating his game this season, which was on full display Monday night in Toronto.
"He is a completely different player than he was a year ago, even four or five months ago," Granato said. "(He's) obviously having career highs and points and goals. I think he's empowered because of that. He feels that he's more impactful now than he's ever been in his career."
