Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) – With Buffalo's 4-0 win over the Colorado Avalanche on Sunday, the Sabres are now 12-1-1 when wearing their "goathead" jerseys.
Fans love that they win when they wear them, but Sunday was so much more than a black jersey with a goat imitating a Buffalo.
It was goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen making 23 saves to earn his first-career NHL shutout.
If you remember last season, Luukkonen walked into Denver and beat Colorado, as he stopped 39-of-41 shots.
When Luukkonen was hot last year, going 12-3-0, he was making the big saves at the big time. That seemed to go away as the season wore on, but this year in three games, he’s arrived as a better goalie.
In his first game in Ottawa this past Tuesday against the Senators, Luukkonen was fantastic until his team broke down around him.
Despite Sunday's win, his team broke down around him immediately with numerous bad decisions and turnovers. It took maybe five or six minutes of Luukkonen standing on his head and then the Sabres got to their game.
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Luukkonen robbed Ryan Johansen four different times from right in front, but it was his save on Mikko Rantanen coming open down the slot that, in my mind, changed the game.
The fans and the bench seemed to get a huge lift when the 55-goal scorer from last year was stymied. This year, the winger is already on a 51-goal pace.
It was right afterwards when Jeff Skinner got Colorado to turn the puck over. He quickly got it up ice to JJ Peterka, but didn’t just stand there and admire his work. He joined the play immediately and with both players at top speed, the defense started backing away.
Peterka’s first shot was blocked, but he scooped up the rebound and scored his fourth goal of the season.
Skinner did it again in the second period.
Just as Zach Benson was coming out of the penalty box, Skinner solved pressure in his zone and quickly hit Mittelstadt in the neutral zone. Owen Power made it a three-man attack the other way, and Mittelstadt used Benson as a decoy and wired a shot past Alexandar Georgiev.
It seems Mittelstadt is learning that he has an elite shot, and needs to use it more.
The third goal worked because of Dylan Cozens, who didn’t even touch the puck.
Power got the puck up ice quickly, as all three forwards attacked the blue line with speed. Cozens never lost stride and sped to the net. By doing that, he backed off the defense and opened up the middle for Tyson Jost.
Alex Tuch found him, and Jost had a goal against the team that drafted him in the first round of the 2016 NHL Draft.
Coming into this game, the Sabres had not won a third period all season. They tied the third period in the two games against the New York Islanders, and lost the third period in their other six games.
In this win, not only did they win the third for the first time all season, they were excellent in the final period. They outshot Colorado, 9-6, and got the only goal of the period.
Buffalo had to kill off two penalties, but there was never a time where I thought they were in trouble. Their puck decisions were very good, they still played fast, and the few times Colorado got near Luukkonen, he made the big save time-and-time again.
The Sabres are now 4-5-0, but this is another example of if the Sabres can play most of their games like that, they will win quite a few of them.
In three games, Luukkonen is now 2-1-0 with a 2.84 goals-against average and a very good .915 save percentage.
In three games, Eric Comrie is 1-1-0 with a 2.45 goals-against average and a .914 save percentage. In four games, Devon Levi is 1-3-0 with a 3.26 goals-against average and an .892 save percentage.
Chances are very good that Luukkonen gets the start Wednesday in Philadelphia. The team hopes to have Levi in practice on Tuesday, and then have him back up Luukkonen on Wednesday.
After the game, the Sabres sent Devin Cooley back to the Rochester Americans. The Sabres will not practice on Monday.
