The Buffalo Sabres eye a third straight win when they wrap up a four-game road trip with a visit to the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday.
The Sabres are coming off a 7-6 victory against the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday. They fell behind 2-0 early in the first period and 3-1 later in the frame before scoring six unanswered goals, including two more in the first to tie the game 3-3. Tage Thompson led the way with a natural hat trick and two assists.
“I thought we did a good job clawing back and then we find ourselves in a good spot in the second,” Thompson said. “I thought we took over, dominated that period and then got rewarded at the end there.”
Thompson, who scored late in the first period to pull Buffalo even, broke the tie late in the second period and tallied again 15 seconds later to put his team up by two. The Sabres then scored twice early in the third to go up 7-3 — the first time this season they’ve led by at least three goals.
Anaheim scored three unanswered, including two in the final 68 seconds to narrow the score.
“If positioning were sound — and we’ve worked hard at this part of the game and going to continue to work on it — the pieces should be there to make them earn a bigger goal than they got,” Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff said.
Not only did the offense enjoy a breakout night, but the much-maligned power play also finally showed signs of life. The Sabres scored twice in three chances — their first two road power-play goals of the season. Prior to Thursday, Buffalo was just 1-for-19 with the man advantage over its previous six games.
“If you get the puck going towards the net, you’re going to get some puck luck,” Ruff said. “There’s times we’re a little bit hesitant to throw pucks to net. We got the bounces we needed, for sure.”
The Kings enter Saturday’s tilt having recovered for a 6-5 overtime win against the Ottawa Senators after blowing a 5-1 lead. Los Angeles scored four times in the second period to take the four-goal lead before Ottawa responded in the third, including the tying goal with less than two minutes left in regulation.
“That was clearly the best second period of the year, not even a question. Third period, I thought it started OK in the first couple minutes and then it got off the rails,” Kings coach Peter Laviolette said. “I think there’s things that we could do better.”
Los Angeles struggled in overtime and shootouts last season and led the league with 20 defeats beyond regulation time. The team knew that this year needed to be different.
“It’s very important that we can get better,” said Quinton Byfield, who scored the game-winner on Thursday. “It’s the difference between third and first in the division or making the playoffs.”
Last season, the 24-year-old forward was one point shy of reaching 50 points after reaching the mark in each of the two previous seasons; he had a career-high 24 goals along with 25 assists.
“We need (Byfield) to be one of our best players every night if this team wants to (get) where we want it to go,” Kings captain Drew Doughty said.