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 goalie 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. That eventually led to Evan Rodrigues getting a lucky bounce off a defender in front, and not even six minutes into the game, the Sabres are down two.
I spoke with forward 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. Krebs responded with, what I thought, was his best game as a member of the Sabres.
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.
Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff 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.
Part of Ruff's changes was putting Krebs back on the line with Tage Thompson and Alex Tuch, and it paid immediate dividends for Buffalo.
Krebs got a puck to Thompson, who gained the Florida line as Tuch got the Panthers defense to back off, because he took them to the net. Thompson was able to rifle home his 29th goal of the season.
A little over three minutes later, captain 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, but when he came out of the box, he hit high gear, beating Panthers goalie 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 3-3.
The Panthers finished the contest 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 go against them. Benson broke in behind the Florida defense, his arm was hooked by Florida defenseman 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 moments later, Panthers forward Cole Schwindt was called for hooking Krebs, and he never even touched him. It was an obvious make-up call.
Then 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.
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The Sabres are continuing their back-to-back set in Florida on Tuesday, as they now head to Tampa Bay to face the red-hot Lightning.
Buffalo comes in with a stretch of 21-4-1 in its last 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, while the Lightning are first at .833. In that time, both teams lead the league with a goals-against average of 2.46. In goals-for, it's 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.
Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy is 13-2-3 over his last 18 games with a .913 save percentage. Overall this season, the Russian goalie is 25-7-3 with a 2.12 goals-against average and a .919 save percentage.
As for Lyon, he is now 11-1-0 in his last 12 starts, but with this being a back-to-back situation, it’s expected that Colten Ellis will play in goal for Buffalo.
Ellis is 7-4-0 this season with a 3.05 goals-against average and an .898 save percentage.
Tuesday is a radio only broadcast for Dan Dunleavy and Rob Ray on WGR Sports Radio 550, with faceoff at 7:35 p.m. Join Chris "Bulldog" Parker for pregame coverage starting at 6:30 p.m. when you’ll hear from Ruff and Isak Rosen.
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