*Photo from the Morganton News Herald*
The noise is getting a little louder in western New York. Zach Benson had a goal and two assists, Bowen Byram scored two goals, and the Buffalo Sabres rolled over the Detroit Red Wings with a 7-3 victory on Tuesday night in Buffalo.
Jordan Greenway and Tage Thompson each had two assists to aid the multi point games from Benson and Byram as the Sabres are 7-3-1 in their last 11 games. Though in 6th place in the Atlantic Division, 5 points separate the Sabres from the final playoff spot. Byram has 4 points in 3 games with the Sabres.
Byram said of his early success that "Coming to a new team, you definitely want to help the team win any way you can. If that’s scoring goals, blocking shots or playing physical, good D, whatever it might be, it’s a good feeling to be helping out there. I thought we had a lot of guys that played well tonight and, like I’ve been saying, we’ve got to continue that down the stretch."
Alex Tuch gave the Sabres a 1-0 lead when he scored unassisted just 1:07 into the game. At the 10:09 mark of the first, Byram scored his 10th goal of the season to make it 2-0 Sabres. Ben Chiarot got the Red Wings on the board to cut the deficit to 2-1 before Zach Benson scored, making it 3-1 with Greenway and Rasmus Dahlin assisting.
Jeff Skinner scored the last goal of the first period, making it 4-1 Sabres after 20 minutes. Connor Clifton made it 5-1 when he scored 4:27 into the second period, his second goal of the season. Byram made it a 6-1 game on his second goal of the night before Lucas Raymond scored on the power play, cutting the Detroit deficit to 6-2.
Later in the second period, JJ Peterka found the back of the net for his 21st goal of the season, scoring unassisted to make it a 7-2 Sabres lead after two periods. Jake Walman scored the only goal of the 3rd period, scoring with 2:28 left in regulation to make it a 7-3 final.
Benson said after the game that "It feels good, obviously, to help the team get the two points. I thought overall collectively, we played a really good hockey game. “Obviously, Bo has been awesome since he’s arrived, and just a lot of guys in this room. Obviously, Upie was good again. You could go through all these guys."
It was Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen manning the goalie crease for the Sabres in this one, getting the win to improve to 21-16-3 in 38 starts. Luukkonen stopped 21 of the 24 shots he faced from the Red Wings, good for a .875 save percentage.
Alex Lyon got the start for the Red Wings and was hung out to dry in this one. Lyon, who dropped to 18-13-2 on the season, allowed 4 goals and made 9 saves on 13 shots before being pulled from the game. James Reimer came on in relief and made 23 saves on the 26 shots he saw.
Red Wings head coach Derek Lalonde said of the loss that "This is not on the goaltending at all. We left the goalies out to dry. Poor Alex, in the first period, didn't have much of a chance. Your first look is Tuch coming 100 miles an hour down the middle of the ice. Like, that's on us, a soft play up the middle, breakaway. They're a team, if you give them easy offense, they're going to put you away. That's exactly what we did in the first period."
Both teams get back in action on Thursday night with home games. The New York Islanders head to Buffalo with Luukkonen slated to start for the Sabres. The Red Wings host the Arizona Coyotes with Lyon expected to start.
Comments
Post a Comment