The Sabres set the tone early, reversing a recent trend by playing arguably their best first period this season. They outshot the Blackhawks 14-6 and jumped out to a 3-1 lead with goals from Josh Doan, Jason Zucker and Bowen Byram in a four-minute span.
Those three, plus three later ones, saw Buffalo’s goal scorer completely uncovered in front of goaltender Arvid Soderblom. Chicago, which had blown a two-goal lead in Thursday’s third period and lost to Seattle, had few answers, defensively.
“They’re in a spot last night where they lost a close one, and I think when you get an early one or two on them in a situation like this, it’s hard as a group (for them) to stay positive,” Doan said. “At the other end of it, we were a team that was a little bit frustrated with how we performed. I think you just catch the tail ends of both of those things, and sometimes stuff like that adds up.”
“You could tell that they were a step behind,” added coach Lindy Ruff, “and a good team can sense that and keep the foot on the gas. And we did it the right way; we did it with everybody on board.”