Sabres let point slip away

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The Sabres hung onto a 1-0 lead for a majority of the game until Elias Lindholm took a shot that deflected off of both Rasmus Ristolainen and Matthew Tkachuk before it finally slipped past Carter Hutton in the final minute of regulation.

 

Calgary continued to carry momentum as they killed off a penalty in overtime and then took advantage of a sloppy defensive play, where Johnny Gaudreau netted the game-winner. 

 

Jack Eichel was defending a 2-on-1 rush, but was unable to block the pass across and it ended up back on Gaudreau’s stick and in the net.

“They outplayed us, we didn’t deserve to win that game. We sat back a little too much. There wasn’t enough compete, enough fire…I thought we were relying on our goalie too much.” – Eichel

Eichel scored the lone Buffalo goal in the first period as he picked the opposite corner on a feed from Jason Pominville after a neutral zone turnover from the Flames.

 

Head coach Phil Housley agreed that the Sabres were outplayed at times, but in a one-goal game, Buffalo failed to finish it off.

“Even though we didn’t play up to our standard, we had a chance to win a hockey game. We had an opportunity with our power play in the OT…and Carter Hutton gave us a chance to win.” – Housley

Hutton was furious after the overtime goal and deserved a much better fate. He made several key stops throughout the night and wound up with the loss, making 36 saves on 38 shots.

 

At the other end, David Rittich allowed one goal on 29 shots for the victory.

With the point, the Sabres extend their point streak to five games, going 3-0-2 over that span and finish the month of October with a 6-4-2 record, which is a big improvement over that of recent years. 

John Krieger
John Krieger
A Buffalo sports fan from birth who has stayed loyal through many tough years. Now living in Buffalo, NY. Producer of the BHC Podcast and would love to be able to report on future Sabres success. Let’s go Buffalo!
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