After being outplayed by the Tampa Bay Lightning for almost the entire game, the Buffalo Sabres managed to pull off a 2-1 win on Tuesday night at KeyBank Center, thanks in large part to Carter Hutton.
With the goaltender pulled, the Lightning had some good chances, and Nikita Kucherov rung two shots off the post. The final horn went after a scramble in front and the Sabres escaped with two points and their third consecutive win.
Hutton saved 29 of 30 shots while dealing with constant pressure from the Lightning. The Sabres had issues getting the puck out of their own zone most of the night, but were bailed out by Hutton.
“I think we were on our heels too much. We gave them too much room to operate, I think we need to clean up some stuff. Good teams find a way to win so we can take some solace in that.” – Kyle Okposo
When the Sabres were able to get the puck into the offensive zone, they weren’t able to do much as they only were able to generate 19 shots against Louis Domingue, and only eight total shots after the first period.
Jeff Skinner was able to keep his hot streak going as he scored his team leading 13th goal late in the first period, jamming home a rebound off of a Sam Reinhart shot. Skinner leads the NHL in scoring in November with seven goals not even half way through the month.
Okposo scored his fifth goal of the season on what would end up being the game winner a little more than five minutes into the second period as he walked in and sniped the right corner on Domingue.
That would be the end of the Sabres offensive night as 15 seconds later Anthony Cirelli scored Tampa Bay’s only goal of the night on a breakaway.
Nathan Beaulieu had assists on both goals for Buffalo and Conor Sheary assisted on Okposo’s goal.
Buffalo is showing that they are capable of winning in many different ways, but they will need to play better moving forward if they want to keep their successful start going.
The Sabres improve to 10-6-2 on the season and will be back in action on Friday as they visit the Winnipeg Jets at 8 p.m. EST.
