Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) – Saturday’s 3-2 shootout win over the Edmonton Oilers was the most bizarre ending to a Buffalo Sabres game I had seen in the regular season.
With just two seconds left in overtime, Owen Power walked in from the left point and ripped a shot far-side past Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner to win the game. Or so we thought.
The players celebrated, the team saluted the fans at center ice, and the Oilers were in their room with much of their equipment off.
That's when the situation room in Toronto got involved with an automatic review.
Alex Tuch was offside as Bo Byram brought the puck into the Edmonton zone, and the goal was disallowed. That forced the players to have to get their stuff back on and come back out to play the final 20.1 seconds of overtime.
Dylan Cozens did manage to find himself alone in front with time running out after the disallowed goal, but he was stopped by Skinner.
Tage Thompson and Tuch scored on Skinner in the shootout, while Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen stopped Connor McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to give the Sabres a win for the second time on Saturday.
In his career, McDavid is 15-of-32 in shootouts, which is 46.9%. Nugent-Hopkins is 15-of-42, which is 35.7%.
Not only did Luukkonen stop McDavid in the shootout, he also stoned him on a breakaway in the third period. McDavid also hit a post, but the Sabres did a fantastic job keeping him off the scoresheet. In the end, Buffalo broke McDavid's 13-game point streak.
McDavid and Leon Draisaitl had three combined shots on goal.
Thompson is now 8-of-19 in shootouts, which is 42.1%. Meanwhile, Tuch is 8-of-21 in the shootout, which is 38.1%.
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This game was also impressive for the Sabres, because Ryan McLeod put a puck through Luukkonen from an almost impossible angle just 29 seconds into the game.
Later in the period, Sabres winger Jeff Skinner coughed up the puck on the power play, giving the Oilers a 2-on-0 shorthanded goal scored by Warren Foegele.
Skinner has really been struggling badly, and found himself on the bench once again at the end of this game. He only played 9:15 in this contest.
JJ Peterka joined him, as he didn’t play from the middle of the second period on. He played two shifts in the final two periods and overtime. Overall, he played 6:04 of ice-time.
On the other hand, Tuch played a career high 26:53 on Saturday. He only had two shots on net, but he missed quite a few Grade-A chances throughout.
Thompson missed the game in Nashville on Thursday, and wasn’t 100% in this game. Despite that, he insisted on playing, which is a good sign. He wants to be there with his teammates.
It paid off for Buffalo, because right after Edmonton took that 2-0 lead, Thompson scored on that same penalty 1:16 later. It was a huge goal, which he scored from one knee and using a Tuch screen.
In the last 25 minutes, the Sabres outshot the Oilers, 14-8, but overall, Edmonton held the edge 32-27. The Sabres created much better chances, but they hit three posts and missed the net all afternoon.
Byram played for the first time in front of the home fans on Saturday and had 25:46 of ice-time. He had another golden opportunity from the left circle, and had four shots and four hits. He played so well, Cozens awarded him with the Sabre sword as the team MVP for the game.
The win broke a three-game losing streak and, believe it or not, gave the Sabres their third win in four games at home.
After the game, the Sabres were seven points behind the two Wild Card teams in the Eastern Conference, the Detroit Red Wings and Tampa Bay Lightning.
While the Sabres got no help from the Philadelphia Flyers against the Lightning, the Vegas Golden Knights did help Buffalo by beating the Red Wings.
Buffalo is off from game action until Detroit comes to town on Tuesday night.
