Coming off a fantastic 7-2 win in Montreal last night, the Sabres followed it up with a huge 6-2 win at home tonight against the Blues, debuting their red and black third jersey’s for the first time since 2006. The boys are bringing back the magic!
The Sabres opened the scoring in tonight’s game even quicker than last night. Jeff Skinner continuing the momentum from his four point night yesterday with his eighth goal of the season, with a beautiful shot past Binnington to give the Sabres a 1-0 lead just 18 seconds into the game. That set a new franchise record as the first time the Sabres have scored opening minute goals two nights in a row. Very quick first period taking just over a half hour and there was a lot to like in that first 20 minutes. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made some key saves early to hold onto Buffalo’s lead and we outshot blues 11-8 in the first.
Tage Thompson took a penalty in the closing second of first period for the Sabres to start the second shorthanded. The Blues capitalized on that and tied it on that power play just 53 seconds into the second on a puck that slowly bounced of a skate past Luukkonen. That was the only time besides the first 18 second of the game that is was tied though. The Sabres took the lead back quickly on a great three on one odd man rush with Dylan Cozens scoring to make it 2-1 from Vinnie Hinostroza and JJ Peterka, just 2:53 into the period. On a power play chance of their own, Owen Power did a great job drawing Ryan O’Reilly in and passed the puck off to Victor Olofsson who ripped the puck into the net to give the Sabres a 3-1 lead on a one timer from the top of the circle with 14:03 left in the second period. Jeff Skinner struck again on the power play on an absolute beauty of a goal as he danced around the defense with the puck and scored his second of the night to put the Sabres up 4-1 with 6:59 left in the second. Play Whitney! Again! UPL played incredibly in the second period. Great to see that.
After a more boring start to the third period after the first two periods of the game saw goals in the first minute, Jack Quinn, who played very well all night had his patience with the puck pay off, scoring 12:44 into the third to give the Sabres a commanding 5-1 lead and put this game into blowout territory. He then got his second of the period, on a two on one with a quick deke around Binnington and then putting it in back of the net for the Sabres sixth goal of the game with 1:17 left. It was way too late in the game for it to matter but the Blues answered right back just 13 seconds later to make it a 6-2 final on a goal from Brayden Schenn with UPL just not able to slide over quick enough.
FINAL: Sabres 6, Blues 2
Very fast game with it ending in less than 2.5 hours and what a fun two and a half hours it was. Another fantastic performance for the Sabres on both ends of the ice tonight to get two wins in a row on back to back nights. The offense was fantastic, scoring early and riding that out the entire game once again now having scored a total of 13 goals over the last two nights. The defense wasn’t horrible tonight and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen was fantastic in goal in his 34 save performance with a .944 save percentage.
The red and black goathead jerseys looked fantastic and the team captured some of the magic that this franchise had back in the day with those sweaters.
Let’s keep rolling Friday against one of the best teams in the league with the Devils coming to town.
Please follow me:
Instagram: @atownszone
Twitter: @atownszone
TikTok: @atownszone
If you like the site and my work, share it with your friends!
A Town's Zone 