Tonight the Sabres came into Nashville on a three game losing streak but ended it tonight in very entertaining fashion, winning 5-3 on the road.
The Sabres looked good early, getting a lot of good chances and not able to get the puck past Saros. Jeff Skinner got a huge stretch pass from Tage Thompson, giving Skins a breakaway and with some beautiful moves he deked out Juuse Saros to give the Sabres the first lead of the game with 8:23 left in the first. The Predators tied it up on the power play with 4:37 left in the first on a big one timer from the point from Roman Josi (the Preds have the best goal song in the show with their spin on Tim McGraw). Despite finishing the period 1-1, really good start to this game for the Sabres. We outshot the Preds 13-6 and outplayed them by an expected goal rate of 1.34-0.43.
To start the second period, after a nice pass from JJ Peterka, Dylan Cozens was wide open in the middle of the ice and scored his 14th goal of the season 2:05 into the second, giving the Sabres a 2-1 lead. With their third power play of the game, Victor Olofsson ripped a one-timer from the top of the circle to put the Sabres up 3-1 with 10:30 left in the second period. With 4:50 remaining in the second, Owen Power couldn’t get the puck out of the zone, mishandled it and that led to Nashville making it 3-2 on a one timer from Jeremy Lauzon off a quick pass from Cody Glass. It didn’t take long for them to tie it up after that, with Ryan Johansen tipping the puck past UPL just 40 seconds later. Very entertaining period that started off great for the Sabres but ended poorly, with the offense waking up but the defense giving up a few garbage goals.
With Tyson Jost in the box, the Sabres got a huge shorthanded goal with Kyle Okposo deflecting the puck between his legs past Saros with 13:17 left in the third. With 3:11 left in regulation, the Sabres iced off the game with a nice goal from Jack Quinn, putting the Sabres up 5-3. UPL was great late to keep the Sabres up two.
Final: Sabres 5, Predators 3
Great win for the Sabres in a very fun game. The offense woke up tonight and that led us to a huge win. The solid play on the road continued tonight, extending us to 12-7 on the road. We got outshot 38-33 tonight but we outplayed the Preds by an impressive margin, an expected goal rate of 5.66-3.41. Impressive win, especially against a great goalie in Juuse Saros, who has never beaten the Sabres.
Back in action at home on Monday afternoon as we host the Panthers.
Go Sabres!
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