Earlier this season when Jack Eichel and the Golden Knights came to town, the Sabres got crushed in a 7-4 loss at home that saw Eichel score four points with a third period hat trick.
Last night the Sabres headed to Vegas for the second matchup of the season between these teams and the Sabres came away with a solid 3-2 win.
Some of the luster was out of this game with Jack Eichel out of the lineup with a lower body injury but Vegas is still the top team out West, leading the conference, so this was still a big win for the boys to finish off the sweep of this three game Western road trip.
With the game not ending till 1am, I figured I’d finish my recap this morning.
Vegas had a lot of good scoring chances in the first but Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen played great in goal and we had two nice penalty kills to keep the game scoreless through the first period where we got outshot 10-6.
The Sabres opened the scoring with a Jeff Skinner goal 57 seconds into the second period on a pass from former Golden Knight Alex Tuch. Tage Thompson put Buffalo up 2-0 with some great moves with the puck with traffic in front of the net with 12:44 left in the period. This kid’s so fucking good. With 6:31 left in the second, Lawrence Pilot scored on a great slap shot from the point, top shelf where mama hides the cookies, taking us into the second with a 3-0 lead.
Chandler Stephenson put Vegas on the board with a breakaway in transition just 3:33 into the third to make it a 3-1 game. Kyle Okposo took a tripping penalty that saved an easy goal opportunity for Jonathan Marchessault which resulted in a penalty shot. UPL stayed with it and made the save, keeping it a 3-1 game. With the Vegas net empty with 2:22 left in the game, the Golden Knights got back within one on a solid shot from Reilly Smith after a defensive breakdown for the Sabres in the 6 on 5. Buffalo held the lead though, going on to win 3-2.
Final: Sabres 3, Golden Knights 2
First Sabres win in Vegas since the Golden Knights became a team in 2017. Solid team win despite getting outshot 43-18. We capitalized when we had to in the second period to build a solid lead and survived a tough third period with Vegas putting on a ton of pressure. UPL was great in goal, making 2.42 goals saves above expected and making a career high 41 saves with a .953 save percentage in the victory.
Four game win streak for the boys with a 6-1-1 record in the last eight games. We’re back in action on Friday night in Buffalo for our third matchup of the season against the Lightning, looking to stay hot against a very good Bolts team.
Let’s Go Sabres!
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