BUFFALO, N.Y. — For the first time since Nov. 5, the Buffalo Sabres are not in last place in the Eastern Conference.

A convincing 4-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday afternoon helped the Sabres improve their record to 9-9-4 and got them 1 point ahead of the Toronto Maple Leafs, who are now in sole possession of last place.

The Sabres have been riding the ups and downs of a topsy-turvy start to the season. Just a few games ago, the team came out completely flat and lost 6-2 to the league-worst Calgary Flames at home. Two days later, they scored nine goals in a 9-3 blowout against the Chicago Blackhawks. And then they showed up Sunday to earn consecutive wins with a complete performance against one of the best teams in hockey.

“This has to be our minimum,” Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin said. “This is how we have to play every night. It’s competing, it’s skating, it’s doing the little things right, work for the team. That’s got to be our bare minimum. Then we can improve some other things.”

The Sabres still have plenty to improve, like most teams at the bottom of the standings. But the rest of the Eastern Conference has been enough of a mess for the Sabres to stay on the outskirts of the playoff picture. They’ve won four of their last five games and are 3 points behind the second wild-card and 5 points behind the division-leading Detroit Red Wings.

If they’re going to take advantage of an odd year in the conference, the Sabres will need to deal with bad breaks as well as they did against Carolina. The Sabres had a goal called off because of a questionable goaltender interference call. They also had to deal with a few other odd calls by the officials. They didn’t allow that to deter them against an already-challenging opponent.

“I think it’s something we talked about a lot last year, we couldn’t get through it,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “It’s that dealing with adversity, where sometimes stuff isn’t going to go your way and you’ve got to move on fast. We had to deal with some tonight, for sure, and I thought we did. And the way we were playing, I was comfortable with the fact I thought we were going to still push ahead.”

That adversity doesn’t just come within the course of a game the way it did Sunday. It comes during stretches of games during the season. The Sabres have answered a five-game winless streak by winning four of their last five. They didn’t let that horrendous loss to the Calgary Flames become the start of another losing streak.

“That Calgary game is something that we’d like to put far back in the rearview mirror,” Sabres winger Beck Malenstyn said. “I think we were able to lean on how we played against Edmonton the game before, realized that probably it’s just a little bit of a one-off. But I think we’ve been able to step up and play two really good games following that, which I think just is a (testament) to the maturity in the group that we’re learning how to play the right way consistently, and it ends up in good results for us.”

Real maturity will reveal itself as the season goes along. The Sabres are a puzzling team, one with a wide variance in terms of how they play from night to night. But they are back to a .500 points percentage and getting healthier. They’ve at least managed to keep themselves afloat, even if they took on quite a bit of water to start the season.

Here’s what else we saw in Buffalo’s 4-1 win over Carolina.

1. Malenstyn scored what must have been the prettiest goal of his professional career. With the Sabres leading 2-1, Malenstyn got the puck on the rush and deked Sebastian Aho silly. He finished the breakaway with a goal that gave the Sabres some much-needed breathing room.

“I don’t think (that move)’s successfully worked for me for about 10 years since juniors, so I’ve kept it in the back pocket just in case,” Malenstyn said.

BECK MALENSTYN ARE YOU KIDDING pic.twitter.com/5tNI7iXN5s

— Buffalo Sabres (@BuffaloSabres) November 23, 2025

Malenstyn was also quick to point out the work Peyton Krebs and Tyson Kozak did to make that play possible. Krebs chipped the puck by a defenseman, and Kozak took a big hit after delivering the pass to Malenstyn that created the rush.

This was a game in which a lot of Sabres were willing to execute the small details. Mattias Samuelsson had some key shot blocks and was effective in clearing the front of the net all game. Ryan McLeod was flying on the penalty kill to force the Hurricanes into hasty decisions. And the team as a whole consistently backchecked to take away high-danger scoring chances. That’s the type of game the Sabres need more consistently.

2. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen started his second straight game, marking the first time all season he’s started consecutive games. On Friday, Luukkonen wasn’t tested too often in Buffalo’s blowout win over the Chicago Blackhawks. But Sunday, Luukkonen stopped 29 of 30 shots and saved 3.10 goals above expected, according to Natural Stat Trick.

Luukkonen’s been through an odd start to the year. He dealt with multiple injuries in the preseason and was at times third on the Sabres’ goalie depth chart. He didn’t play his way out of that spot until this weekend. Asked whether he’s OK with the way the rotation has been handled, he said, “I mean, it’s not my call. As long as we keep winning, that’s the biggest thing right now. It’s up to the coaching staff and everyone to make those calls.”

Buffalo’s goalie situation has been a confusing one. Alex Lyon had the workload of an unquestioned starter, but it’s been 10 days since he played against the Colorado Avalanche and got pulled after allowing two goals on three shots. Colten Ellis got a few games in a row but then had an underwhelming performance in the loss to the Flames. Ruff seems intent on riding the hot hand, and that hasn’t always been the easiest thing to identify. Through 22 games, the Sabres rank 23rd in the NHL in five-on-five save percentage and 28th in the NHL in high-danger save percentage at five-on-five, according to Natural Stat Trick.

At some point, the Sabres might need to trim the roster to two goalies to make room. But for now, Luukkonen, Lyon and Ellis are stuck in a clunky rotation.

“It’s part of the job,” Luukkonen said. “When your name gets called, you have to be ready for it. I think the team has been playing well in front of me, so it feels good to kind of help the team win, too. It’s not always optimal, but sometimes you have to work through it, and we’ve been having two other goalies that have been playing well, so you have to do your thing every day as well as you can and be ready when your name is called.”

3. Jack Quinn had arguably his best game of the season Sunday. He led the team with six shots on goal, which was a season high. Five of those shots came at five-on-five, and he also had 11 shot attempts and five scoring chances in this game. He ended up scoring the game-winning goal by battling to gain position in front of the net and finishing a strong feed from Ryan McLeod.

Quinner’s putting on a show today 😮‍💨 pic.twitter.com/a78Sb3nmny

— Buffalo Sabres (@BuffaloSabres) November 23, 2025

Quinn’s had an up-and-down start to the season, but he’s been better as of late. Ruff rewarded him with 20:39 of ice time Sunday, the most of any forward on the team.

The Sabres have a bit more competition for Quinn in the organization after the way Isak Rosen played in his most recent call-up. Rosen was sent back down to Rochester to make room for Zach Benson on the roster, but Ruff made it clear he expected Rosen to be back up at some point this season. That said, the Sabres would love for him to take someone other than Quinn’s spot. If Quinn can become a reliable and consistent middle-six forward, the Sabres would feel a lot better about their lineup.

4. The Sabres had Benson back in the lineup for the first time since Oct. 30. He missed 10 games with a lower-body injury after missing a few games earlier in the year with a face injury. Ruff started him off on a line with Noah Ostlund and Tyson Kozak, and Benson also was back in his spot on the top power-play group.

5. Jordan Greenway didn’t play in this game, and Ruff described it as part of a load management plan. After he needed multiple hernia surgeries in the last 12 months, Greenway has struggled to regain strength and speed. The hope is that by taking some games off, Greenway will be able to spend more time in the gym and get his strength back to where it needs to be. The Sabres have the depth to handle Greenway’s absence with the way Josh Dunne has played.