The Buffalo Sabres were looking to get their second win of the weekend on Sunday night, but they ran into a red-hot Chicago Blackhawks team who showed no mercy in a 4-1 loss at the United Center in Chicago.
Buffalo played the Blackhawks well to start, but couldn't seem to generate many scoring chances.
The Blackhawks seemed to take advantage of their chances, and they capitalized in the first period with a goal from third overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft, Kirby Dach. The Sabres allowed Dach to sneak behind them and get a shot on goal that ended up floating in off of Jack Eichel's stick and over Carter Hutton in goal.
Chicago took the 1-0 lead into the locker room, but the Sabres were able to generate 13 shots on goal in the opening 20 minutes to the Blackhawks' 10 shots.
The Sabres' power play has struggled in the last handful of games, and those struggles continued on Sunday as Buffalo had numerous chances throughout the night and failed to convert, going 0-for-4 on the man advantage.
Dach broke through yet again in the second period as he caught Eichel sleeping in the defensive zone and blew by him for a chance in alone on Hutton. Dach took a nice pass from Zack Smith, and the rookie went to the backhand to beat Hutton on the blocker side.
The Sabres still kept up with the Blackhawks, out-shooting them 11-10 in the period, but still trailed by a 2-0 score heading into the third period.
Buffalo had a golden opportunity to close the gap in the opening 1:59 of the third with a power play chance, but the Sabres never could get anything formulated on their man advantage chance.
Things got ugly for the Sabres from there as Chicago made it a 3-0 game at the 3:42 mark of the period thanks to a power play goal from Patrick Kane. After Jake McCabe took a high-sticking penalty, the faceoff came into the Sabres end. Rasmus Asplund tried his best to tie up the draw, but Kane dug his way through some bodies to retrieve the puck and fired it past Hutton.
Later in the period, Brandon Saad had a breakaway that Hutton made a great pad save on, but nobody picked up the trailing Jonathan Toews, who capitalized to give the Blackhawks a 4-0 advantage.
The Sabres had an answer less than a minute later, but that was all Buffalo could muster. Eichel was able to score his fifth goal in two nights as he intercepted a pass from Blackhawks defenseman Calvin de Haan and was able to wait out goalie Corey Crawford and lift a wrist shot over his left leg.
The Sabres return home to Buffalo for a matchup with the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday night at KeyBank Center. Faceoff is set for for 7 p.m. with the Paul William Beltz Pre-Game Show starting at 6 p.m. with Mike Schopp and the Bulldog live at (716) Food and Sport.