Los Angeles, Calif. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - In the Sabres' 4-1 win over the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday, it was the little things that just kept adding up into big things, resulting in Buffalo's fourth-straight win and 12th win in 13 games.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen had to make a huge save 10 seconds into the game, as he was eye-to-eye with Alex Laferriere.
Los Angeles did take the lead at 10:48 when Artemi Panarin was alone in the left circle for a power play one-timer. That ended Buffalo's shutout streak at 174:55.
From that point on, though, Buffalo started moving their feet, causing turnovers and getting some offensive pressure on Anton Forsberg.
"I thought their compete was better than ours," said Ruff of the opening period following the win. "I thought in the first 10 minutes, they won more of the 50-50s. In the faceoff circle, we were terrible. So now we're chasing the puck around, but I thought they came after us as hard as they could.
"Then we competed harder, got to pucks quicker. I thought we got over pucks. You've just got to get into people, and when you do that, you can win the battles."
When I talk about little things, it's Zach Benson getting blasted by two Kings players, yet he takes a very hard hit to make a play to Sam Carrick, who goes to the net and scores.
It's Jason Zucker battling with Cody Ceci at the top of the crease on the power play, and when Rasmus Dahlin takes the shot from the point, chaos develops and the puck goes in off of Ceci's glove.
It's Tage Thompson seeing Los Angeles taking off on a dangerous 3-on-2, putting his head down and getting back, turning into a harmless 3-on-3.
There were many examples of things like that in this game.
"We have a slogan that, 'Everybody ropes and everyone rides.' It means there's no job that's too big or small for you to do out there," Thompson said after Saturday's win. "And when everyone out there is doing those things that aren't very pretty, but shows the guy next to you that you care about winning, it's infectious. I think everyone in the room is doing it."
Luukkonen and Alex Lyon have been as good as they could possibly be since Dec. 8. Buffalo has given up one goal in their last 224:07, and on this road trip, they've outscored their opponent 11-1.
Buffalo is back to a tie in points with the Carolina Hurricanes for first place in the Eastern Conference. The Canes still lead in points percentage, .681 to .671.
Both teams are in action on Sunday, as Buffalo is in Anaheim to play the Ducks, while Carolina visits the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Join Brian Koziol and myself for pregame coverage on WGR starting at 7 p.m. when you'll hear from Ruff and Peyton Krebs.
Buffalo netted four unanswered goals for a 4-1 victory in Los Angeles
