Tonight the Sabres extended their win streak as the hottest team in hockey to nine in a row, finding a way to beat the Blues 4-2 on the road.
The Sabres got on the board first 2:18 into the game with Josh Norris jumping on a failed clear by St. Louis and quickly getting it to Ostlund on a two on one off a beautiful pass to make it 1-0 early with no chance of Joel Hofer sliding over. The Blues tied it up 5:08 into the game with Brayden Schenn putting it short side on Lyon in transition on a quick two on one, kind of similar to the Sabres goal. Jimmy Snuggerud gave the Blues the 2-1 lead with pretty lousy defense, stealing the puck behind the net and stuffing it in short side. Pretty bad play there for Buffalo to lead to that goal. The Sabres looked good early, but they weren’t great defensively through that first period. Gotta pick it up.
Alex Tuch thought he tied up the game at 2-2, 3:55 into the second period, but after a very quick review, he clearly kicked a rebound into the net to take the goal off the board. Tuch got that goal back though, actually tying it with 4:43 left in the second period, with a beautiful play in transition from the top of the far circle. Not the best period again, but definitely better than the first and we go into the third all tied up.
Buffalo took the lead back just 1:46 into the third period with a nice backhand pass from down in the corner by Ryan McLeod, setting up Jack Quinn to get the puck on goal, with Zach Benson knocking the bouncing puck into the net to give the Sabres a 3-2 lead. The Sabres got very lucky with Lyon out of position, giving the Blues a great chance, but Peyton Krebs iced the puck into the empty net to put Buffalo up 4-2. Really good third period on both ends of the ice.
FINAL: Sabres 4, Blues 2
The Sabres are STILL the hottest team in the NHL. This wasn’t the best game for us tonight, playing a bit sloppy at times, but they found a way to get the win to extend it to nine wins in a row. Huge. I though the offense did a really good job generating chances, despite not being able to to solve Hofer for big stretches of the game, out-chancing St. Louis 25-14 and outshooting them 34-18. The defense looked bad at points, but when it was needed they played good enough to win.
Let’s keep rolling! Big test to make it ten in a row in Dallas on New Year’s Eve!
Let’s Go Buffalo!!
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