Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) – For the last two games, the Buffalo Sabres have been a different team.
Buffalo played a flawless game on Wednesday night in Toronto, beating the Maple Leafs, 5-1. The Sabres returned home on Friday and faced some adversity, only to overcome it and complete the season series sweep over the Minnesota Wild.
Jeff Skinner scored the game-tying goal and go-ahead goal late in the third period. Victor Olofsson hit the empty net in, what turned out to be, the game-winning goal, because Kirill Kaprizov netted his second of the game with 34 seconds left to make it 5-4, Sabres.
Buffalo entered the third period with a 2-1 lead, knowing its blown third period leads and lost a league-leading nine times this season. Sure enough, just five minutes into the third period, the Wild had two goals and Buffalo had blown its lead.
The team and the building sagged, but rookie defenseman Casey Fitzgerald knew what to do. The rugged defenseman pummeled Mason Shaw and the Sabres bench and the fans erupted.
That wasn’t the only way Fitzgerald contributed to the win. Late in the second period while killing a penalty, he went down and blocked a one-timer from Matt Boldy that would’ve gone into the open side, had Fitzgerald not blocked it.
After the fight, Skinner worked as hard as you could possibly work and grabbed the lead back.
On the first goal, the Sabres got fortunate when Tage Thompson’s hard dump-in hit the linesman and went right to the slot. Goalie Kaapo Kahkonen went behind the net to play, what he thought would be, the puck being rimmed around the wall. He had to scramble back when the puck came out front.
Skinner was on his backhand and totally fanned on his first shot attempt, but spun and hit the pad of the sprawled goalie on his second attempt. Skinner never stopped, as Alex Goligoski and Frederick Gaudreau got caught watching, and Skinner went around them, finding himself with a wide-open net.
Just 4:20 later, Alex Tuch got his stick on a pass to cause a turnover. As he pursued Jonas Brodin up the wall, Brodin threw the puck in the slot and guess who was there?
Skinner’s first shot was blocked by former Sabres defenseman Dmitry Kulikov, but he kept the legs churning, got the rebound, blew around Kulikov and roofed one off the crossbar and in.
This wasn’t just the Jeff Skinner show on Friday night.
Casey Mittelstadt returned to form and had his best game of the season, by far. It was only Mittelstadt’s 14th game of the year, though. His best play wasn’t his goal or assist, but it came with around three minutes left when he got the puck behind the Wild’s net and just lugged the puck for a good minute or more. He was tripped for, what should’ve been, an obvious penalty, but he stayed with it and continued to protect a puck that Minnesota couldn’t take off him.
Both of Mittelstadt’s points came on the power play, and the goals were almost identical. Hard work, get pucks and players to the net, and convert on rebounds.
In the final 40 minutes of the game, the Sabres only allowed 18 shots on goal. However, head coach Don Granato was far from satisfied.
“I didn’t feel we had any rhythm to our game until the last 10 minutes," he said following the win. "I thought we fought getting in sync, but there was a surge after 'Fitzy' [Fitzgerald] battled there by the penalty box. We played with a different energy at that point, which was what we were searching for the first 45-50 minutes. But I loved the way we finished.”
The Sabres now have back-to-back wins against the fifth and 11th best teams in the NHL. Before losing six in a row, Buffalo beat the 24th and 31st best teams in consecutive games, making them 4-6-0 in their last 10.
That puts the Sabres in 27th place with a .393 points percentage.
Buffalo plays the Los Angeles Kings on Sunday afternoon, the Florida Panthers onMonday night and the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday night.
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***Photo: Micheline Michaelina (@MiMiV4682)
