Los Angeles, Calif. (WGR) - When the Buffalo Sabres left for Washington to start their four-game road trip against the Capitals, they were playing OK hockey. But head coach Lindy Ruff kept saying their best game was still to come.
They ended up losing that game in overtime to the Capitals, but then won their final three games of the road trip in California - against the San Jose Sharks, Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings - to earn seven out of a possible eight points.
Unfortunately, all it's allowed Buffalo to do is keep pace in the Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference standings.
Buffalo has points in eight of their last nine games, and are in seventh in the Atlantic - two points ahead of the Detroit Red Wings, and one point back of the Tampa Bay Lightning, Florida Panthers and Toronto Maple Leafs. The Sabres are two points out of third place and a playoff spot occupied by the Ottawa Senators, three back of the Montreal Canadiens and four back of the Boston Bruins.
The Panthers and Lightning hold the two Wild Card spots in the East.
Against the Kings on Saturday, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen played well, stopping 27-of-29 shots faced.
Buffalo sprinted out to a 2-0 lead and, for a change, I can tell you the power play won the Sabres the game.
Sabres winger Jack Quinn got the scoring started with the extra man, as Zach Benson found him with a blind, backhand, cross-ice pass that was perfect. Quinn bulled his way to the slot for his eighth goal in 14 games.
Thanks to Luukkonen, that score held up until 15:38 of the second period when Tage Thompson was set up by Benson coming through the right circle and powered the puck past Anton Forsberg.
That gave Benson four assists in his last two games, and two goals and 10 assists for 12 points in his last nine.
The Kings were able to tie the score thanks to Corey Perry's power play goal late in the second period that he kicked in, followed by an extremely sloppy change that left Andre Lee alone in front early in the third period.
The Sabres had killed off a penalty to captain Rasmus Dahlin, who came out of the penalty box and went to the bench. Nobody was ready to go on the ice, and I could see Dahlin screaming to the bench to wake his teammates up. That extended the Kings' 5-on-4 advantage, and they made Buffalo pay.
In the last two games, the Sabres entered the third period with the lead for the first time all season and won both contests. They weren't about to let the Kings win this one with Buffalo leading by a goal.
After Lee tied it, Buffalo went back on the power play with six-and-a-half minutes to go, and Quinn made a great pass to Thompson in the left circle, and he made no mistake with a one-timer, giving him five goals in two games.
Overall this season, Thompson has 10 goals in 14 games.
A few minutes later, Thompson thought Joel Edmundson put a dirty hit on Peyton Krebs and he jumped the Kings defenseman. As it turned out, Krebs was already falling before he got hit, and Thompson had misread the situation.
The Sabres were able to kill off the penalty, including when Los Angeles pulled the goalie to make it a 6-on-4 situation, and then finished off the game to earn the win.
The penalty kill came up big, and the power play now has four goals in two games.
Buffalo got a shut out win from Colten Ellis in San Jose, so both goalies have contributed in this California swing.
In their last 15 games in California, the Sabres are 12-2-1. In the last two seasons on the road against the Pacific Division, they're 9-1-1.
The Sabres get a few days off before starting a four-game homestand against the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday. After that, they go on the road for another six-game road trip.
