{"id":578080,"date":"2026-05-18T18:09:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T18:09:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/578080\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T18:09:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T18:09:14","slug":"sabres-news-ukko-pekka-luukkonen-or-alex-lyon-for-game-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/578080\/","title":{"rendered":"Sabres news: Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen or Alex Lyon for Game 7?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Buffalo Sabres have had some inconsistency<\/a> with their goaltending, as Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen was replaced by Alex Lyon in their opening round series against the Boston Bruins; the latter went on to post some elite numbers in helping the club reach the second round for the first time since 2007.<\/p>\n

But Lyon has found himself struggling against the Montreal Canadiens, getting pulled twice now in the series for Luukkonen, including after the first period of Saturday evening’s Game 6, which eventually resulted in an 8-3 Sabres win to force<\/a> a winner-take-all Game 7 on Monday evening at KeyBank Centre. Lyon was pulled after allowing three first-period goals on just four shots, while Luukkonen held down the fort by stopping all 18 shots he faced in relief.<\/p>\n

As for which Sabres goaltender will be given the start for Game 7, head coach Lindy Ruff indicated that he has not made a decision yet. But according to Sabres beat reporter Matthew Fairburn of The Athletic, it looks as though Luukkonen could be the one<\/a> who ultimately gets the nod.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLindy Ruff wouldn\u2019t reveal his starting goalie for tonight, but for what it\u2019s worth, Alex Lyon and Colten Ellis were the last two goalies on the ice with the extras skating this morning,\u201d wrote Fairburn on X, formerly known as Twitter. \u201cCould be an Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen night in Buffalo.\u201d<\/p>\n

So far in the 2026 postseason, Luukkonen has posted a 3-2 record with a 3.36 goals-against average and a .875 save percentage. Meanwhile, Lyon has gone 4-3 with a 2.59 goals-against average and a .904 save percentage.<\/p>\n

Game 7 between the Sabres and Canadiens will begin at 7:30 p.m. ET with national coverage available in the United States on ESPN.<\/p>\n

The Buffalo Sabres have had some inconsistency with their goaltending, as Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen was replaced by Alex Lyon in their opening round series against the Boston Bruins; the latter went on to post some elite numbers in helping the club reach the second round for the first time since 2007.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Buffalo Sabres have had some inconsistency with their goaltending, as Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen was replaced by Alex Lyon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":578081,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5100],"tags":[1107,229,5133,5,4,1108,104],"class_list":{"0":"post-578080","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-buffalo-sabres","8":"tag-buffalo","9":"tag-buffalo-sabres","10":"tag-buffalosabres","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-sabres","14":"tag-stanley-cup-playoffs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116596923667250982","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}