Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) – This is not an April Fools joke. The Buffalo Sabres' 18-game winless streak is over.
Buffalo threatened to win on Saturday against the Bruins in Boston, and then again on Monday against the Philadelphia Flyers at KeyBank Center, but they blew leads in both games and lost.
Wednesday was different.
When adversity struck, the team handled it well, got through it and got back to the way Don Granato wants them to play. This time, there was no blowing a three-goal third period lead. There was, instead, only two record-breaking shorthanded goals to clinch a 6-1 win.
Buffalo led 4-1 after two periods and Granato stayed away from the players and the locker room.
“We felt it was best to hand it to them," the interim head coach said following the win. "'It’s your third period. It’s not ours, and you know what to do.' And we felt they did know what to do.”
The adversity struck early in the second period.
While leading 2-0, Tage Thompson took a high sticking penalty just 54 seconds into the middle frame. Philadelphia didn’t score, but they took over the game and by 3:50, Ivan Provorov had put one in off of Brandon Montour to make it 2-1.
Things got worse, as the Flyers had outshot Buffalo, 9-0. Luckily for the Sabres, Philadelphia couldn’t get another by Linus Ullmark.
Instead of falling apart, the team got back to the way Granato wants them to play with pace and speed, and it paid off.
Rasmus Ristolainen took the puck deep into the corner and found Steven Fogarty in front, who, at age 27, scored his first NHL goal in his 22nd NHL game. Fogarty had one NHL point in his whole career, and 5:57 after his goal, he made a slick pass to Casey Mittelstadt, who beat Elliott between the legs for his second point of the period.
That gave the Sabres the same three-goal lead that they blew when they lost in overtime to the Flyers on Monday.
“They pulled together instead of apart, and it couldn’t have been a better scenario, because you were playing the same team with the same lead a day later,” Granato said.
Buffalo was playing a good third period when Thompson took another penalty. Alain Vigneault pulled his goalie to make it a 6-on-4 power play, but Montour got the puck directly in front of Ullmark and fired it the length of the ice into the net to make it 5-1. Just 37 seconds later, Montour converted his own rebound on Alex Lyon for another shorty. It was the fastest two shorthanded goals by a defenseman in NHL history.
One other player who stepped up for this improving team under Granato was Jacob Bryson, who missed one game with an upper-body injury. The rookie had two assists and handled 22:31 of ice-time to lead the team. Bryson was plus-4 on the evening.
After going 0-15-3, the Sabres have now picked up three out of a possible four points in the last two games. They’re still in last place in the NHL with 19 points. That’s nine points behind the Anaheim Ducks and Detroit Red Wings. Buffalo’s points percentage of .271 is also worst by far. The Wings and Ducks are both at .378.
As I wrote earlier this week, I definitely see improvement in this team with Granato as coach. He recognizes what will work with this team, while Ralph Krueger didn’t have a clue and insisted they play a style they weren’t suited for.
Curtis Lazar scored a goal in the first period, but then left the game and never returned. Rasmus Asplund returned to practice on Wednesday and could maybe play if Lazar can’t go on Thursday against the New York Rangers. Lazar only played 7:43 before exiting.
