Ottawa, Ontario (WGR Sports Radio 550) - The Sabres played late-game comeback in Canada's capital city on Thursday night, as Buffalo turned a third-period 2-1 deficit on its head, en route to a 3-2 overtime win over the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre.
The home side opened the scoring about eight minutes into the first period. Forward Noah Gregor beat Sabres goalie Felix Sandstrom to give Ottawa the 1-0 edge.
That lead barely survived two minutes of game play, though.
At exactly the midway point of the first period, Josh Dunne's shot from the left circle beat former Sabres netminder Linus Ullmark on the glove-side to draw the blue and gold even, 1-1.
After a scoreless second period, the Senators re-claimed the lead 11:46 into the third period.
While on the power play, forward Adam Gaudette found himself all alone in front of Sandstrom, and he snapped home a rebound to make it a 2-1 contest.
With time ticking away on the clock in regulation, the Sabres pulled Sandstrom for the extra skater and the efforts paid off.
Inside the final minute, defenseman Vsevolod Komarov teed up forward Isak Rosen with a perfect pass to his wheelhouse. Rosen slammed home a one-timer on his off-wing to tie the game at 2-2, and eventually force overtime.
In the extra frame, it was 2022 first-round pick Noah Ostlund playing hero for the Sabres.
Ostlund skated in to the right of another former Sabres goalie, Dustin Tokarski, who entered the game in relief of Ullmark in the second period. Ostlund then toe-dragged his way in front of Tokarski, before depositing the game-winning goal on the backhand.
Ostlund's effort put the finishing touches on a 41-shot performance from Buffalo, and helped the Sabres move to 4-0-0 in the preseason.
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SCORING RECAP
First Period:
BUF: 10:00 - Josh Dunne (1) (Vsevolod Komarov, Tyler Tullio)
OTT: 7:55 - Noah Gregor (1) (Carter Yakemchuk)
Second Period:
BUF: NONE
OTT: NONE
Third Period:
BUF: 19:19 - Isak Rosen (1) (Vsevolod Komarov, Konsta Helenius)
OTT: 11:46 - Adam Gaudette (2) PPG (Tyler Boucher, Carter Yakemchuk)
Overtime:
BUF: 2:01 - Noah Ostlund (1) (Zach Metsa, Viktor Neuchev)
OTT: NONE
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Three Stars of the Game:
1.) Noah Ostlund - BUF
2.) Carter Yakemchuk - OTT
3.) Josh Dunne - BUF
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What's next:
The Sabres' NHL group are in Germany, set to play an exhibition game against EHC Red Bull München on Friday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. ET. You can catch all the action of Buffalo's exhibition game on our sister station, The Bet 1520.
As for the rest of the group, the team will visit the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena on Saturday night for a 7 p.m. ET faceoff. This contest can be heard on WGR Sports Radio 550 with Dan Dunleavy and Rob Ray on the call.