Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - For the second game in-a-row, the Buffalo Sabres reached down deep and earned gutsy wins against two teams that were just sitting there waiting for them.
Buffalo was playing its fourth game in six days on Tuesday, featuring its fourth different city played in. Despite that, the team got great goaltending from James Reimer once again, and put in the hard work to score two goals after falling behind 2-1 to beat the Ottawa Senators, 3-2.
In the first half of this game, Buffalo sat in the penalty box once again, and gave Ottawa four power plays, in which they capitalized twice.
After the 10:18 mark of the second period, though, the Sabres didn’t take another penalty, and scored two 5-on-5 goals to win the contest.
The Sabres not only had to overcome the penalties, but also a disallowed goal due to an offside challenge in the first period. Jack Quinn made a great play to send in JJ Peterka, who got behind the defense, but Peterka beat the puck into the zone.
Quinn missed Saturday’s game in Minnesota after missing the team’s morning meeting, but it seems to have gotten him going, because he’s played better in the last two games.
For most of this season, Quinn has just refused to shoot the puck. However, he managed to tie the game at 1-1 when Peterka set him up in front and he ripped a shot immediately to beat Anton Forsberg.
The goal was Quinn’s first tally in 14 games.
The hard work that went into the final two goals is the kind of effort this team needs to give on a regular basis.
Sabres defenseman Jacob Bernard-Docker scored against his old team with a nice shot from the right point, but the goal doesn’t happen if Peyton Krebs and Tyson Kozak don’t give the effort they did to keep getting possession of the puck from the defensive zone all the way deep into the offensive zone.
Bernard-Docker ended up playing 14:08 of ice-time against his old team and was plus-2.
The game-winning goal came 1:23 into the third period when Zach Benson, plain and simply, outworked Fabian Zetterlund behind the net. Benson then found Tage Thompson in front, who had found a soft spot between the defensive pairing of Tyler Kleven and Travis Harmonic.
The goal was Thompson’s 35th of the season, but his first goal in six games.
Once again, Reimer made great saves in net for Buffalo, robbing different Ottawa shooters until the Sabres got to their game for the final 30 minutes.
What else can you say about the 37-year-old Reimer, at this point? He’s played three of the last four games, stopping 90-of-98 shots, which is a .918 save percentage.
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As for Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff, he became just the second coach in NHL history to win 600 games with one franchise.
As Ruff reflected after this game, he talked about the frustration of this season, because he always feels he can fix anything. He says he prides himself on fixing everything, and this season hasn't worked out that way.
"I'm a guy from Day 1 that always thinks I can fix everything, and I haven't been able to fix everything,” Ruff said following the win. “This year's been a disappointment for me."
Judging by his postgame comments on Tuesday, Ruff doesn't sound like a coach that's going to give it up at the end of the season.
"I really want to get this right and turn this around," he said.
Former Sabres center Dylan Cozens was back for his first game against his old team, and assisted on Brady Tkachuk’s power play goal just 1:35 into the game.
Cozens played 17:08 on Tuesday, and was a minus-2 with two shots and one hit.
During the first commercial break of the night, Cozens got a nice video tribute from the Sabres, which he very much seemed to appreciate.
Buffalo plays host to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night.