Playing in just his second NHL game, Cole Knuble scored twice to lift the Philadelphia Flyers to a 3-1 road victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday.
Knuble’s strong effort guided Philadelphia to its third straight win since the team started the season 0-6-3. The Flyers have scored three goals in each of those three victories after failing to reach that mark in any of their first nine contests.
Trevor Zegras also scored for the Flyers, while Oliver Bonk had two assists and Dan Vladar made 27 saves.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen turned aside 23 shots and Jason Zucker tallied the only goal for the Sabres, who have lost five of their last seven games.
Knuble opened the scoring at 14:49 of the first period, grabbing a rebound of a Bonk shot which was saved and burying it on his backhand for a 1-0 lead.
The Flyers made it 2-0 on a power-play goal with 43 seconds left in the period. Luukkonen saved Matvei Michkov’s initial shot, but Zegras batted the rebound out of the air and into the net for his third goal of the year.
Meanwhile, Vladar was steady on the other end as Buffalo held a 16-9 edge in shots despite trailing 2-0 at the first intermission.
The only goal of the middle session was Zucker’s first of the year — a power-play goal in which Jack Quinn’s shot hit off Zucker on the doorstep and found its way into the net.
The Flyers failed to score on a 5-on-3 that lasted over a minute late in the second period. Shortly thereafter, Philadelphia defenseman Travis Sanheim was whistled for high-sticking, leading to Zucker’s power-play goal.
Knuble’s second of the night came at 3:03 of the third period. He carried the puck on an offensive rush before Luukkonen cut off his angle. However, the rookie quickly banked the puck off Luukkonen and into the net on a shot from just behind the goal line.