Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (WGR Sports Radio 550) – It sure didn’t start well for the Buffalo Sabres on Monday in Florida, but they figured it out quickly and went from down 2-0 early to beating the Panthers, 5-3.
It was a start that saw the whole team including Alex Lyon look off their games and uncomfortable.
It only took 37 seconds for the Panthers to get on the board. Niko Mikkola’s shot from the left point hit A.J. Greer in the back going right to Sandis Vilmanis. He wired a shot past Lyon that he saw the whole way.
A little over four minutes later, Ryan McLeod turned the puck over, putting a pass into Jack Quinn’s skates and they’re not even six minutes into the game and they’re down two.
I spoke with Peyton Krebs at the end of the first period and he said he was very upset at the mistake he made on the first goal saying it was on him. In hockey there are going to be mistakes, but it’s how you respond that’s key and Krebs responded with what I thought was his best game as a Sabre.
He’s the one that started matching Florida’s desperation. He won a battle along the wall right in front of the benches against two bigger players and then went after them physically.
Ruff also made an adjustment during a TV timeout because he could see Florida was dominating because of their boards play. He said that’s the Panthers bread and butter and if you allow it, they’ll just swallow you up. Ruff adjusted their breakouts and the Panthers then had trouble with the Sabres.
Ruff also put Krebs back on the line with Tage Thompson and Alex Tuch and it paid immediate dividends. Krebs got a puck to Thompson who gained the Florida line. Tuch got the defense to back off because he took them to the net and Thompson rifled home his 29th.
A little over three minutes later, Rasmus Dahlin had Krebs going to the net and he slid a really nice pass across and Buffalo had the game tied before intermission.
McLeod took a delay of game penalty at 3:36 of the second period and when he came out of the box, he hit high gear, beating Sergei Bobrovsky to a puck in the deep slot. Zach Benson went to the net and easily gave Buffalo the lead with Bobrovky standing in the faceoff circle.
Florida was able to score a power play goal right before the second period ended to tie the game at three. The Panthers finished with 41 shots on Lyon, but 12 of them came with the extra man.
It didn’t happen in Saturday’s loss to the Montreal Canadiens, but recently the Sabres have been locking down third periods and Monday was no different.
Buffalo knew all it had to do was win a period and they had their two points. This game was very poorly officiated as both teams had bad calls against. Benson broke in behind the Florida defense. His arm was hooked by Tobias Bjornfot taking away the scoring chance. I was wondering if it would be a penalty shot, but the refs didn’t even call a penalty.
Just a few minutes later Cole Schwindt was called for hooking Krebs and he never even touched him. It was an obvious make-up call. On the ensuing power play, Josh Doan made a nifty pass in front to Jason Zucker and he netted the go ahead and game winning goal.
Speaking of nifty, Krebs put it away on a 2-on-1 pulling off a slight hesitation move which opened up the defenseman and gave him a passing lane to Doan for a tap-in.
The Sabres are continuing the back-to-back on Tuesday in Tampa against the red-hot Lightning. Buffalo comes in 21-4-1 in 26 games while first place Tampa Bay is 17-1-1 in their last 19 games. Since Dec. 9 Buffalo is second in the NHL with a points percentage of .827, the Lightning are first at .833. In that time both teams lead the league with a goals against of 2.46. In goals for its Tampa Bay first at 4.04 and the Sabres second at 3.88.
In 39 games against the Sabres, the league’s third leading scorer, Nikita Kucherov has 19 goals and 29 assists for 48 points. Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy is 13-2-3 with a .913 save percentage. Overall this season the Russian goalie is 25-7-3 with a 2.12 goals against and .919 save percentage.
Lyon is now 11-1-0 in his last 12 starts, but with this being a back-to-back, it’s expected that Colten Ellis will play. He’s 7-4-0 with a 3.05 goals against and .898 save percentage.
Tuesday is a radio only game so the only place to hear Dan Dunleavy and Rob Ray is on WGR Sports Radio 550, with the call at 7:35. Join The Bulldog for pregame starting at 6:30 when you’ll hear from Ruff and Isak Rosen.