At The Final Horn | Sabres falter late in OT loss to Detroit

The Buffalo Sabres picked up a point as they battled against a strong rally from the Detroit Red Wings in a 4-3 overtime loss on Saturday at KeyBank Center.
Moritz Seider scored the game-winning goal with 2:15 remaining in overtime. Tyler Bertuzzi scored twice late in the third period to erase a 3-1 Sabres lead and tie things up. Bertuzzi also assisted on Seider's goal.
For Buffalo, Tage Thompson, Rasmus Dahlin and Arttu Ruotsalainen scored. Dustin Tokarski turned aside 29 of the 33 shots he faced.

Rasmus Asplund recorded two assists to extend his career-best point streak to six games (3+5). There are currently only five NHL players that have longer active point streaks.
Pius Suter also scored for Detroit. Alex Nedeljkovic made 29 saves.
Buffalo's power play finished 1-for-2 and the team was 2-for-2 on the penalty kill.
The Sabres are 0-3-1 over their last four games.

How it happened

Detroit opened the scoring right away. Sixteen seconds in, Suter jammed home a loose puck in front to give the Red Wings an early lead.
The Sabres tied things up in the second period thanks to a great individual effort by Jeff Skinner to set up Thompson. Skinner forced a turnover in the neutral zone and Buffalo turned the puck back up ice. Skinner cut in on goal and once he got past the goal line, he threw the puck back in front, where Thompson buried it with 8:28 remaining.
Dahlin put the Sabres up 1:04 later on the power play when his wrist shot from the point beat Alex Nedeljkovic for his first goal of the year. Asplund set up the screen in front.
At 6:08 of the third period, Ruotsalainen made it 3-1 when he knocked in a rebound in front.
The Red Wings scored twice late to force overtime.
Bertuzzi one-timed a feed from Danny DeKeyser with 6:36 remaining to put Detroit back within one. Bertuzzi tied the game when he cut in down the middle, split the defense and scored with 5:06 to play.
The Red Wings cashed in Seider won a battle on the left wing and roofed a shot to give Detroit the extra point.

Roll the highlight film

Here's Dahlin's first of the season:

Worthy of a mention

• Craig Anderson missed the game due to an upper-body injury. Sabres coach Don Granato said Saturday morning that Anderson is considered day-to-day. The team called up Aaron Dell to back up Tokarski.
• The Sabres honored Val James and the 40th anniversary of his NHL debut during the game. On November 1, 1981, James became the first Black American player to skate in an NHL game when he suited up for the Sabres against the Philadelphia Flyers.

During pregame warmups, the team wore custom black jerseys featuring the "Breaking Barriers" logo designed last season by local artist Edreys Wajed as the crest.
Wajed joined the pregame show to talk about the design process and what it meant to see his logo worn on NHL jerseys:

Warmup pucks with the "Breaking Barriers" logo were used by both teams, and coaches and broadcasters wore special lapel pins with the logo during the game.
The Sabres donated 100 tickets to local youth organizations, including the Buffalo Police Athletic League, Breaking Barriers, Girls Sports Foundation, Hasek's Heroes and Confident Girl Mentoring, to the game.

The Buffalo Sabres Foundation also donated $10,000 to the Buffalo Police Athletic League Can-Ice Learn to Skate program, which includes the installation of a new synthetic ice rink located at the Hennepin Community Center in James' honor. The rink will be operated by Buffalo PAL and will be used to provide kids in the city with an opportunity to learn to skate and play hockey, many for the first time.
Born in Florida and raised on Long Island, where he learned to skate as a teenager, James developed a reputation as one of the toughest fighters in professional hockey.

James played in 10 NHL games - including three in the Stanley Cup Playoffs - with Buffalo in 1981-82, and another four regular-season games with the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1986-87.
In 1983, he scored the goal that clinched the Calder Cup Trophy for the Rochester Americans.
James wrote about his experiences and struggles in his autobiography, "Black Ice," with John Gallagher.

Coming up

The Sabres are scheduled to practice Sunday before hitting the road for a game on Monday against the Washington Capitals. Faceoff is set for 7 p.m. on MSG and WGR 550 with pregame coverage on MSG starting at 6:30.