FIRST PERIOD
Tuesday’s rematch between the Oilers & Sabres started the same way their last meeting on Nov. 17 went in Buffalo, with the Sabres taking advantage of a late power play in the first period to open the scoring in a quiet first 20 minutes at Rogers Place.
Goaltender Colton Ellis started between the pipes to face the Oilers after making 32 saves in Buffalo’s 5-1 victory last month and flashed the leather early on Edmonton’s first great chance on an open slap shot from Mattias Ekholm above the circles at 13:21 of the frame.
The 25-year-old netminder stood up Adam Henrique on a two-on-one with Mattias Janmark two minutes later, and was bailed out by the right post before the period’s halfway mark when a fast breakout up the middle through Vasily Podkolzin landed on Leon Draisaitl’s stick for a shot from the slot that struck iron.
The Oilers killed off the Sabres’ first power play with Darnell Nurse in the box for boarding Josh Doan, but were back on the penalty kill when David Tomasek’s hard drive to the net saw him contact the head of Ellis for goaltender interference to sert up another Buffalo man advantage before the break.
Alex Lyon would have to come into the game to replace Ellis – possibly for concussion protocol – and would later stay in the game to begin the second period for the Sabres after Ellis didn’t return to the Buffalo bench following the intermission.
But the Sabres made the Oilers pay by taking advantage of their 1:32 of power-play time before the intermission, taking a 1-0 lead on a deflection in front by Josh Doan with 59 seconds leftt in the period off the point shot delivered on goal by Rasmus Dahlin, with Tage Thompson picking up the secondary helper.
The Sabres scored with 57 seconds left in the first period back on Nov. 17 against the Oilers and were looking to bounce back from their 7-4 loss to the Flames in the first of back-to-back games on Monday.