Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - Not only did the Buffalo Sabres honor Rob Ray by inducting him into the Sabres Hall of Fame on Friday, they played a good game for the fifth-straight time, beating the Nashville Predators, 4-3.
While the Sabres have only won three of their last five games, they made progress in the two losses.
Friday was the tale of three games.
Buffalo came out fast, led by Rasmus Dahlin, netting two goals in 8:41.
On the first one, there were three Sabres at the net. Jack Quinn ripped a shot from the left point that Dahlin tipped through Justus Annunen. The puck was slowly sliding towards the goal line, with Ryan McLeod giving it the nudge it needed for his 11th goal of the season.
McLeod now has five goals in seven games.
On the second goal, Dahlin made a perfect stretch pass from deep in his own zone to spring Jiri Kulich through the right circle. The forward beat Annunen far-side for his 10th goal of the year.
It was a big night for Kulich, because he revealed during his postgame press conference that his parents saw him play in the NHL live for the first time.
Buffalo was skating well, and using good puck management to get up ice quickly. All of a sudden that went away.
They started complicating plays with bad passes and the turnovers started. By 2:51 of the second period, the Sabres had blown their two-goal lead and were down, 3-2.
In many games this season, that would’ve turned into mass panic, dumb penalties and a 7-2 loss.
This time, the Sabres faced it head-on, and slowly got their game back. They started winning battles again, which opened things up for them.
Mattias Samuelsson and Jason Zucker double-teamed a battle, getting the puck up to Alex Tuch. Tuch executed the give-and-go with Zucker perfectly for the winger's 17th goal, and the game was tied going into the third.
In many losses this season, the Sabres faded in the third period. However, they had determination, which led to very few errors on Friday.
The persistence paid off, as JJ Peterka led a 3-on-2 up ice. He dished off to Tage Thompson on the right wall and kept coming hard up the middle, taking a defenseman with him. That gave Thompson room to find a streaking Kulich coming up the left wing side. He made no mistake scoring, his second goal of the game and 11th of the season.
Kulich just missed the open net with the goaltender pulled, which would have given him his first NHL hat-trick in front of his parents.
Still, Kulich has four goals in five games, and 7-in-13. That line has eight goals and five assists for 13 points in their last two games.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen was solid, coming up with some big saves in the second period when the team was struggling. But the play of the game, in my mind, came with about three second left on the clock.
The Preds had the goaltender pulled and got their best goal scorer, Filip Forsberg, the puck near the top of the left circle. Bo Byram went down on one knee to block his fourth shot of the game to seal the win.
His teammates all piled off the bench to mob him for his effort before going to Luukkonen.
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Now let’s not get all this twisted. They’ve put together five pretty decent games in-a-row, but they’re still the worst team in the Eastern Conference, trailing the Pittsburgh Penguins by five points.
Earlier this season, everyone was telling me what a horrible loss it was to the Columbus Blue Jackets. I was told you can’t lose games to a horrible team like that.
Well, that horrible team is in the Eastern Conference’s first Wild Card position with a .567 points percentage. They're also 14 points ahead of the Sabres, who have the fourth-worst points percentage in the NHL at .441.
Buffalo next faces the New Jersey Devils on Sunday. The Devils beat Buffalo twice to open the season in Czechia, and are 10th in the NHL with a points percentage of .604.
New Jersey has some key injurie,s as their captain and leading goal scorer Nico Hischier is out week-to-week after being cross-checked in the mid section by Nick Suzuki of the Montreal Canadiens.
Goaltender Jacob Markstrom got slammed into hard by Boston Bruins forward Justin Brazeau, and will be out 4-to-6 weeks with an MCL sprain.
Jake Allen is coming off a 24-save shutout of the Philadelphia Flyers. He’s started four-straight games, going 3-1-0. Allen is 8-9-1 this season with a 2.55 goals-against average and a .908 save percentage.
Jack Hughes has 20 goals and 40 assists for 60 points in 53 games.
Join Brian Koziol for pregame coverage on WGR on Sunday starting at 12 p.m.