Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) – The community came together on Thursday, as a sellout crowd came to see their Buffalo Sabres win their fifth-straight game, and maybe give the region a few hours of joy after some devastating losses due to the Christmas weekend blizzard.
Buffalo hadn't practiced in seven days and hadn’t played a game in 10, yet, they came out fast against the Detroit Red Wings. Buffalo didn’t look sloppy after the long layoff, and came out of the first period with a 1-0 lead thanks to a Casey Mittelstadt goal just three seconds after a power play ended.
The Sabres had 14 shots on Red Wings goalie Magnus Hellberg and looked to be in complete control.
We’ve seen many times where this team can score goals in a hurry, and the second period of this game was no different.
Red Wings defenseman Filip Hronek fanned on a pass, giving Jeff Skinner a wide-open chance in front and it was 2-0. Skinner now has points in nine straight-games, scoring eight goals and eight assists for 16 points.
Mittelstadt got his second of the game on the power play when his pass to Jack Quinn hit Hronek and went in. Just 53 seconds later, Peyton Krebs was fast in on the forecheck and got support from Zemgus Girgensons, who found Kyle Okposo in front and it was 4-0. Just 2:41 after his first goal, Okposo got his second of the game.
In 3:34, the game went from 2-0 to 5-0.
Buffalo seemed to wilt in the third period, which, to me, was totally understandable after playing a game with 20 minutes of practice in seven days.
Just one day earlier on Wednesday, Detroit fell behind in Pittsburgh, 4-0, and won the game in overtime, 5-4.
In this one, the Red Wings got it going and had three goals in the first 7:11 of the period. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen had been stellar in the first 40 minutes, making 14 saves with a few coming from point-blank range from Elmer Soderblom and Dylan Larkin.
After the three goals went in, Luukkonen went back to work fighting through screens and making saves, as Buffalo couldn’t get out of its own end.
Buffalo stopped the bleeding, and it’s not going to shock you who was involved.
With Hellberg pulled, Larkin just casually went back behind his net and saw that Girgensons was bearing down on him. The Red Wings captain pulled up so Girgensons wouldn’t hit him, but he didn’t. The veteran winger stole the puck, put it in front, and Okposo had his first hat-trick since coming to Buffalo.
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If I was Red Wings head coach Derek Lalonde, my captain would’ve been in my office after the game hearing about how that kind of soft play is unacceptable if he’s going to be the captain.
Coming into the game, Tage Thompson had points in 10 out of 11 games, and Alex Tuch had points in four-straight. Neither player was needed to contribute on the scoresheet in the win.
This young team showed a lot in this game. For 40 minutes, they were flying all over the ice. And yes, they made some mistakes, but really didn’t look rusty.
They also started to get themselves into trouble in the third period, but they didn’t panic, and it was the captain coming to the rescue to make sure there was no Red Wings comeback on this night, despite giving up three goals on 17 shots.
Even though they hadn’t played a game in 10 days and hadn’t practiced in seven, Rasmus Dahlin played 25:17 and Mattias Samuelsson played 22:13, which is slightly below their nightly average.
Buffalo gets a day off, and then its three games in four nights on the road, playing in Boston, Ottawa and Washington. The Sabres are 6-1-0 in its last seven road games.
