BUFFALO, NY. (WKBW) — Ugly wins are and always will be better than pretty losses, and for the Buffalo Sabres, it's the best way to describe their 3-2 shootout win over the Seattle Kraken Saturday night at the KeyBank Center.
After once again falling behind early in this game, with a mixture of penalties, turnovers, and some questionable officiating to pin some of the blame on.
Buffalo would find themselves in a 2-0 hole mid-way through the second period, with frustrations only building. But a Rasmus Dahlin power-play goal sparked enough life into this team that they would be able to claw their way back into this one.
From there, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen would spot 32 saves with some of his biggest ones coming late in the game to keep the Sabres within striking distance.
Peyton Krebs hit the game-tying goal, and from there, when overtime couldn't determine a winner, Buffalo remained unblemished in shootouts with another win there to pick up a valuable two points to remain atop the Atlantic Division standings and contend with Carolina at the top of the conference.
Dahlin told reporters after last night's loss to Detroit that today's game would tell us a lot about the kind of team they are. And the word resilient seems to come to the forefront as they celebrate this win.
"A lot going on for sure, but part of the fun, I guess. Just keep our emotions in check and try to keep going," says forward Jack Quinn.
"Sometimes emotions get hot, and when you start to point fingers and look for excuses, whether it's penalties or whatever, I think we just focus on what we can control, adds Tage Thompson. "And we knew if we did that, we'd get our chances and looks."
"Especially the games in Anaheim and here against Boston, which we dropped in OT, but we fought back, but even in first periods in those ones, we let it slip," added goaltender Ukko-Pekka Lukkonen. "So just playing a solid 60 minutes tonight was a big thing for us."
"But to get back in the win column is a big deal because you look at the win column and all of a sudden it shows you've lost three in-a-row," head coach Lindy Ruff said after the game. "The battle by our guys was big enough to overcome anything in the game that would've kept us from winning."
So Buffalo remains two-points ahead of Tampa Bay for first place in the Atlantic Division and is tied with the Carolina Hurricanes for the top spot in the Eastern Conference with 98 points. Carolina does own the tiebreaker with more games at hand.
