*Photo from Buffalo Hockey Beat*
Things are trending up in western New York. Ryan Johnson had two assists, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen shined again, and the Buffalo Sabres shut out the Chicago Blackhawks with a 3-0 victory on Thursday night in Buffalo.
With the game moved back a day due to snow pummeling the Buffalo area, the Sabres were still able to win their second straight game and are now 6-4-0 in their last 10 games despite still holding 7th place in the Atlantic Division. Johnson's two assists made him the Sabres only multi point player.
The spotlight was on Luukkonen all night. He shut out the Blackhawks for his second straight shutout after stonewalling the San Jose Sharks on Monday, stopping all 19 Chicago shots in this one. Dating back to the second period of a 1-0 loss to the Vancouver Canucks, Luukkonen has an active shutout streak of 157:55. It's also the 3rd shutout of his NHL career.
Luukkonen said of his shutout success that "It feels great. Especially, you know, there’s been a lot of talk about our defensive play last year, especially we kind of showed how tight we can play. As I said I feel last game, too, it’s not about me, it’s about the team and the shutout. It doesn’t happen if they don’t block shots, box out. We played a good game tonight, and it showed on the scoreboard."
After a scoreless first period, the Sabres kicked off the scoring in the second period. Zemgus Girgensons converted on his 4th goal of the season at the 12:27 mark of the second, making it 1-0 with Johnson and Peyton Krebs assisting.
In the 3rd period, the Sabres built on their one goal lead. JJ Peterka scored 2:57 into the period, making it a 2-0 game on his 14th goal of the season with assists going to Johnson and Jack Quinn. With the Sabres on the power play at the 6:06 mark of the period, Rasmus Dahlin scored his 13th goal of the season to make it a 3-0 score.
Dahlin said after the game that "We’re playing with mojo right now. We’re not afraid to make plays, and we back up each other if someone messes up or something. We’re playing a good team game right now. We’re calm with the puck and make the right plays."
Starting between the pipes for the Blackhawks was Arvid Soderblom, who got tagged with the loss to drop to 2-14-1 in 17 starts. Soderblom stopped 28 of the 31 shots he saw from the Sabres, giving him a .903 save percentage.
Blackhawks head coach Luke Richardson said of the loss that "I didn’t think we skated and forechecked and took the body on their defense, which we wanted to. They're a great skating defense. We just didn’t generate enough offense, obviously, with no goals. But our guys killed penalties hard and well and unfortunately a little too much, and the power play couldn’t generate much after the first try. Really not enough offense to have a chance to win in this League. We’ve got to definitely try and do a better job to support our goaltending with some more goal support."
Up next, the Blackhawks conclude a back to back on Friday night against the New York Islanders, with Petr Mrazek set to start. Luukkonen is expected to start for the Sabres when they take on the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday.
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