San Jose, Calif. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - So far, it has been a road trip for the ages from the Buffalo Sabres.
The Sabres have imposed their will on both of their opponents to start the Western road trip, with Thursday's victim being the San Jose Sharks in a 5-0 victory at SAP Center.
After a scoreless period-and-a-half of hockey, the Sabres broke out in a monstrous way. In a span of just 1:43, Buffalo turned a 0-0 contest into a 3-0 lead.
Noah Ostlund got things going by winning a race to a shot attempt off the end boards from Josh Doan. He quickly fired home the game's opening goal and got the Sabres off-and-running in San Jose.
Just 36 seconds later, newcomer Sam Carrick doubled the Sabres' lead, as he wired a shot past the blocker of goalie Alex Nedeljkovic .
Moments after that, Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin drove the net hard and accepted a slick pass from Jason Zucker to boost Buffalo's lead to 3-0.
The barrage continued early in the third period of play.
A mere 40 seconds into the final frame, Tage Thompson fired a shot on Nedeljkovic that just squeaked through and trickled over the goal line for his 35th goal of the year.
It also marked Thompson's fourth-career 35-goal season, becoming the fifth Sabres skater to post four seasons of 35 or more goals, joining Rick Martin, Gilbert Perreault, Dave Andreychuk and Danny Gare.
With 3:06 left in regulation, Carrick scored again to make it 5-0, Buffalo. The initial shot was taken by defenseman Logan Stanley from the point, where the puck deflected off a Sharks defender before bounding into the net off the left skate of Carrick.
From that point, it was all over but the shouting.
Alex Lyon was able to complete his career-high third shutout of the season, and seventh clean sheet of his career.
He matched Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen's effort from Tuesday night in Vegas, as the Sabres posted consecutive shutouts for the first time since January 2024.
Furthermore, Thursday night's victory was Lyon's 10th-consecutive win away from KeyBank Center. He is one road win shy of tying the league record of 11, shared by Evgeni Nabokov (San Jose - 2009-10 season) and Devan Dubnyk (Minnesota Wild - 2014-15 season).
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SCORING RECAP
First Period:
BUF: NONE
SJS: NONE
Second Period:
BUF: 9:05 - Noah Ostlund (11) (Josh Doan, Logan Stanley); 9:41 - Sam Carrick (7) (Rasmus Dahlin, Zach Benson); 10:48 - Rasmus Dahlin (14) (Jason Zucker, Mattias Samuelsson)
SJS: NONE
Third Period:
BUF: 0:40 - Tage Thompson (35) (Peyton Krebs, Alex Tuch); 16:54 - Sam Carrick (8) (Logan Stanley, Zach Metsa)
SJS: NONE
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BlueStar Home Services Three Stars of the Game:
1.) Mattias Samuelsson - BUF
2.) Rasmus Dahlin - BUF
3.) Alex Lyon - BUF
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What's next:
The Sabres continue their California road trip on Saturday when they head to Los Angeles to visit the Kings at Crypto.com Arena. Puck drop is set for 4 p.m. with Dan Dunleavy and Rob Ray on the call.