Milano, Zegras combine for lacrosse-style goal to help Ducks top Sabres

BUFFALO -- Sonny Milano and Trevor Zegras combined on a lacrosse-style goal for the Anaheim Ducks in a 2-0 win against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center on Tuesday.

Milano said he called out to Trevor Zegras to try the lacrosse-style goal known as "The Michigan," but Zegras scooped the puck onto his stick behind the goal and lobbed it to Milano, who batted it out of the air at the right side of the net to give the Ducks a 1-0 lead at 5:14 of the second period.
"I expected him to do 'The Michigan' himself before I even called for it," Milano said. "He wasn't, so I was just like, 'Just do it.' I was like, 'Michigan, Michigan,' and he ended up just throwing it to me and I batted it in."
Zegras said, "I was sold on the pass. Once I heard him yell 'Michigan' to me, I kind of wanted to get it to him. I still can't believe it worked. It's pretty funny, I've tried it a couple of times and haven't even come close. For him to whack it out of the air and keep it under the crossbar is pretty incredible."

Anthony Stolarz made 25 saves, and Sam Carrick scored for the Ducks (14-8-5), who are 3-0-2 in their past five games and were coming off a 4-3 shootout loss at the Washington Capitals on Monday. Stolarz got his second shutout of the season and fifth of his NHL career.
"The guys were all over it on the bench," Anaheim coach Dallas Eakins said. "They didn't say the word shutout, because that is taboo in the hockey world. The guys were going hard at the end. … Guys sacrificing themselves to get in front of [shots]. When you see that, that's when you know you have a tight-knit group. When you see that, you know they are working hard for that goalie. So not only that he can have the shutout, but our team can have one too."
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 21 saves in his season debut for the Sabres (8-14-3), who lost their fifth straight (0-4-1) and are 1-8-1 in their past 10.
"'UPL' looked good, looked comfortable," Buffalo coach Don Granato said. "I thought we helped him out a bit more than we had been lately. It was nice to see him feel good, look good. But obviously no support on the scoring end was the difference. It made it tough."
The Sabres were outshot 9-3 in the second period but pressed in the third, outshooting the Ducks 15-8.
"What did I think about the first 40 minutes? We looked a little lethargic," Granato said. "You can only guess why, and we're going to try to figure that out ourselves on the coaching side because we just didn't look or play with the pace, didn't look like ourselves and didn't play with the pace that we typically do and certainly intended to do."

Carrick made it 2-0 at 17:52 of the third period when he tipped Josh Manson's shot from the point after winning a face-off in the right circle.
"It's exactly how those things are drawn up," Eakins said. "Sammy right now, with [center Ryan Getzlaf] out, is our only right-handed face-off guy, and has been playing really well defensively. He was out at the end of the game for a reason. To be able to win that draw and then go to the net, that's an added bonus."
NOTES:Sabres center Casey Mittelstadt (undisclosed) left the game at 6:04 of the third period. Granato did not have an update. … Milano scored for a third straight game and has scored seven points (four assists) during a four-game point streak. … Zegras has eight assists during a four-game point streak. ... Lacrosse-style goals are known as "The Michigan" for University of Michigan forward Mike Legg, who in a 1996 NCAA tournament game against the University of Minnesota scored by picking up the puck with his stick and tucking it into the corner of the net.