The Winnipeg Jets held off the desperate Sabres by killing off all five penalties while scoring a short-handed goal on one of them. The Sabres tried to rally in the final five minutes down by one, but couldn’t come up with a game-tying goal, falling to Winnipeg, 3-1.
After a bad bounce that got past Rasmus Dahlin at the point, Andrew Copp opened the scoring for Winnipeg while short-handed on a breakaway goal that beat Carter Hutton high glove side.
Later in the 2nd, Jack Eichel would snap his 3 game-goal drought right after the power play expired in the 2nd period off of a nice feed from Dahlin. It was Eichel’s 4th goal in 18 games.
🚨 EICHEL'S 18TH OF THE SEASON!
We're tied up! pic.twitter.com/69q9ZzU7ZH
— Buffalo Sabres (@BuffaloSabres) February 10, 2019
Back and forth play would go on for most of the 3rd until Blake Wheeler notched his 12th goal of the season off of an absolute dime from Josh Morrissey after a long shift in Buffalo’s end.
Guess that's one way to thread a needle. pic.twitter.com/8qAwVV4i6a
— NHL (@NHL) February 10, 2019
With many chances that Buffalo created came many saves from Connor Hellebuyck. The Winnipeg goaltender was stellar as he turned away 35 of 36 shots from the young Sabres squad.
Hutton also had a good game while saving 26-28 shots. Overall, the defense played well while keeping most of Winnipeg’s shots to the outside.
In the end, Buffalo’s push was not enough as Mark Scheifele iced the game with an empty netter with seven seconds left in the game.
Housley: "It was a real tight game, there was a not a lot of room, scoring chances at a minimum… in the 3rd, I thought we had some quality looks, the bottom line is that we need to get results" #Sabres
— Brian Koziol (@BrianWGR) February 10, 2019
The Sabres look to bounce back Tuesday night as they host the New York Islanders at 7 p.m.