Elmont, NY (WGR 550) - On Saturday Alex Lyon won his ninth straight game which tied a Buffalo Sabres record held for almost 50 years. Gerry Desjardins did it in 1976-77. Lyon did it in style posting a 26 save shutout in a 5-0 victory over the New York Islanders.
Since Dec. 8 Lyon is 9-0-0. He’s third in the NHL during that time with a save percentage of .928 and also third with a goals against of 1.99.
Overall the Sabres played a great game except on the power play where Lyon had to stop Grade-A chances on Simon Holmstrom and Bo Horvat. He stopped Horvat on a shorthanded breakaway too. Bo Byram got into the act, killing a shorthanded 2-on-1 that looked like a sure goal. That was in the second period with Buffalo leading 1-0 and the Islanders took the momentum and really pressured the Sabres to tie the game.
It was a penalty kill after that that allowed the Sabres to take the momentum back and put the game away. The Islanders were just as bad on the power play and were being booed by their fans. That's when Mattias Samuelsson came out of the penalty box and got Buffalo up ice and into transition. Zach Benson came through the left circle and made Isles goaltender David Rittich think he was going to shoot. Benson then made him think he was going behind the net and he spun a pass back where he came from to Tage Thompson who easily beat Rittich who was looking in the opposite direction. That goal came at 19:47 of the second period.
At the 25 second mark of the third period, Zucker seemed to fool Rittich again coming out from behind the net and quickly spinning to make it 3-0.
The Sabres put in a lot of hard work in this game and they were rewarded. On the first goal at 33 seconds of the second period, Samuelsson did a masterful job of reading the play up the wall, won his battle and cycled it behind the net to Zucker who won his. He found Ryan McLeod in the right circle and Jack Quinn positioned himself in the slot where McLeod could find him. Quinn blasted a one-timer which Rittich stopped but left a juicy rebound for Zucker to deposit into the net. McLoud continues his hot streak with four goals and eight assists for 12 points in 11 games.
Patrick Roy pulled his goalie with about seven minutes left and Rasmus Dahlin shot a puck the length of the ice to give the Sabres their league leading 16th empty net goal.
Since Dec. 9 the Sabres are 18-3-1 which is a points percentage of .841 which is second in the NHL. They’re second in goals against at 2.36 and are fourth in goals scored at 3.77.
In that time period Thompson is seventh in the league with 30 points in 22 games. His 24 goals are fifth, but he leads the league with 13, even strength goals. Bo Byram is second and plus-20, McLeod and Samuelsson are sixth at plus-18.
Buffalo wraps up their five-game road trip Tuesday in Toronto.