(WGR Sports Radio 550) – The Buffalo Sabres took a lineup mostly made up of Rochester Americans into Columbus, and used hard work to play the Blue Jackets even through two periods.
Buffalo left the second with a 2-1 lead, but couldn’t get a save from goalie Felix Sandstrom in the third period and the air came right out of them in a 6-3 loss.
Sandstrom gave up five goals on 22 shots in 27:17 of work.
So far in the preseason, Sandstrom is 1-1-0 with a 4.82 goals-against average and an .816 save percentage. He looks no different than he did for six seasons in the Philadelphia Flyers organization, where he floundered.
Scott Ratzlaff was stellar during his 30:52 of work. He’s played 50:52 in two games and has stopped all 30 shots he’s faced.
In the first half of the game when he played, he made some big saves at big times to allow his team to get out in front 2-0.
I can’t say enough about how hard this group worked for eight periods playing in place of the NHL group, who’s in Europe getting ready to open the season in Czechia against the New Jersey Devils.
Buffalo wasn’t intimidated that they were playing a team of NHL players, and played them even for 40 minutes. Noah Ostlund ended the last game scoring the overtime winner, and followed that up with three very heady assists in this one.
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Buffalo was on a power play in the first period when Josh Dunne went to the crease and was left alone. Ostlund was on the left wing wall and fed a perfect pass to Dunne, who directed the puck by goalie Elvis Merzlikins.
In the second period, Ostlund came in 2-on-1 with Mason Jobst. He somehow sensed that Zach Metsa was joining the rush late, and dropped him a perfect pass to make it 2-0.
In the third, it was another 2-on-1 with Jobst, and he did a spin-o-rama move to open up the passing lane and Jobst had a layup.
Ostlund is this team’s leading scorer in three games with a goal and three assists. Dunne has two goals and three points, while Metsa has two assists and three points.
Buffalo is now 5-1-0 in preseason, as this group is 2-1-0.
The Detroit Red Wings game with the Penguins on Saturday night was postponed until Monday because of mechanical problems with Pittsburgh’s plane. That means Detroit will play two split squad games.
If I were Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman, I’d keep the NHL players in Detroit to play the Penguins, and send the guys slated for the Grand Rapids Griffins to Buffalo to play this Amerks team.
The Sabres’ NHL group will practice in Germany on Sunday, and then leave for Prague to practice there on Monday.