(WGR 550), Buffalo, N.Y. - The Buffalo Sabres got stellar goaltending from Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, a late goal from Peyton Krebs, and an unbelievably skillful shootout goal from Jack Quinn to sink the Seattle Kraken 3-2. In was the first time the Sabres had ever beaten the Kraken in Buffalo in five tries.
Luukkonen was at his best making two shootout saves, but during regulation, he stopped 32 shots.
Some sloppy early play gave Seattle a 2-0, lead, but Luukkonen held down the fort allowing his team to mount a comeback and to break a three-game winless streak.
Krebs tied the game at 11:39 of the third period leading a 2-on-1. He actually shot the puck to prove, maybe to himself that he does have a good shot and the team was on its way.
Buffalo is now 8-1-3 in the second games of back-to-back situations and Lindy Ruff said there are reasons for that,
"It's our maturity with managing the puck, not beating ourselves, staying in games, taking advantage of opportunities when they're there, but not doing anything crazy to create those opportunities, and it's something we spend a lot of time on about our puck management which killed us last year and we've gotten so much better at it this year."
Part of the reason the Sabres have struggled recently is two of their centers have not played well for awhile. Josh Norris has one goal and one assist for two points in his last 11 games while Ryan McLeod has one goal in 27 games and no goals in 12. McLeod never seems to want to shoot and has one shot on goal in his last seven games. Ruff said,
"I don't think it's a big secret, I think the best place to go is inside and get around net front, get there more consistently. I think their rush game is good, but I think the inside game just needs improvement, they need more inside chances."
McLeod doesn't have shots because he's never looking to shoot, often he passes up a Grade-A opportunity to pass to a covered teammate. He did hit the crossbar on Saturday as time was running out in the first period. Ruff added,
"I agree, a lot of times he's (McLeod) looking to Quinn, he's made a lot of really good plays to him, he's made a lot of good plays to Zucker and I think he's deferring a lot to passing and there're have been times when he's between the dots and he's deferred to try to make a pass and I already met with him today about it."
Saturday was a game where the Sabres did skate well, they did play hard and they did produce opportunities. Phillipp Grubauer made 34 saves and was even better than Luukkonen. Grubauer is now 8-1-3 all-time against the Sabres. The two goalies were without a doubt the first two starts of the game, but in Buffalo, it should be called the Sabres three stars of the game, because out of town players are usually ignored as Grubauer was Saturday.
Conor Timmins played really well in his first game back for the Sabres, but he's settled back into what he was before he was injured and that's very inconsistent. He's once again turning the puck over 5-on-5 and the eye test and the analytics say Zach Metsa is the better player.
Buffalo is in second place in the Atlantic Division with a points percentage of .662. The Tampa Bay Lightning are .667 and host the Nashville Predators on Sunday. The Carolina Hurricanes lead the Eastern Conference with a points percentage of .681. Both the Canes and the Bolts have two games in hand on Buffalo. On Sunday Carolina is home against the Montreal Canadiens. The Sabres are next in action on Tuesday when the New York Islanders come to town.
Peyton Krebs tied the game with 8:21 left
