Avalanche defeat Sabres, gain in Central Division race on Compher's goal

DENVER -- J.T. Compher broke a tie with 8:06 remaining and the Colorado Avalanche moved into second place in the Central Division with their fourth straight win, 3-2 against the Buffalo Sabres at Pepsi Center on Wednesday.

Martin Kaut scored his first NHL goal and Pavel Francouz made 31 saves for the Avalanche (37-18-7), who played without starting goalie Philipp Grubauer (lower-body injury) and forwards Mikko Rantanen (upper body), Andre Burakovsky (upper body), Nazem Kadri (lower body), and Matt Calvert (lower body).
"We're just trying to play complete games with all the guys that are out of the lineup," Compher said. "We're trying to make sure that we're sound defensively, tracking well, and I think we've done a pretty good job of that."
WATCH: [All Sabres vs. Avalanche highlights]
Compher, who also had an assist, scored with a shot from the slot off a pass from Joonas Donskoi.
"(Tyson) Jost did a great job on the wall, and it was a great pass by (Donskoi) to be backdoor," Compher said.
Curtis Lazar and Zemgus Girgensons scored and Carter Hutton made 31 saves for the Sabres (29-26-8), who won five of their previous six games. They are sixth in the Atlantic Division and remained 10 points behind the Columbus Blue Jackets for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.
"It was a really good hockey game," Buffalo coach Ralph Krueger said. "If this was the fifth game of the season, you'd be quite happy right now; it's just that all that matters to us right now are results. Take the score out of it, it was a (heck) of a hockey game. Two good goalies, lots of opportunity there."

The Avalanche took a 1-0 lead at 14:24 of the first period on Gabriel Landeskog's power-play goal. Compher was in front of the net and passed to Landeskog on the right for a shot inside the near post.
"We talked about getting pucks to the net and taking them anyway we can," Compher said. "I was just trying to jam a few and get one over, and [Landeskog] was able to bury it."
Girgensons tied it 1-1 at 16:21 with a redirection of Kyle Okposo's shot from the left face-off circle.
Kaut gave Colorado a 2-1 lead in his fourth NHL game at 7:15 of the second period on a power play when he converted the rebound of Vladislav Kamenev's shot from the left circle.
"It's a dream," said Kaut, who was the Avalanche's first-round pick (No. 16) in the 2018 NHL Draft. "I am so happy for this moment. It was my dream to score my first NHL goal and I got it, so I am so happy. My mom was here, so that goal is for my mom. We celebrate tonight probably, just a little bit."

Lazar tied it 2-2 at 14:56 when he redirected Jake McCabe's shot from the right point in the slot.
"I think we played a strong game," said forward Wayne Simmonds, who made his Sabres debut after being traded from the New Jersey Devils on Monday. "We didn't carry it for all 60 minutes, but I thought we played well for a large chunk of that game. Unfortunately, we didn't come out with the equalizer."
Jost had a goal waved off at 2:38 of the third when he redirected Nikita Zadorov's shot with a high stick. He has not scored since Nov. 30 (36 games).

They said it

"We knew we were facing a pretty good team. They've got so much speed, but I think we controlled it to give us some chances. We were pretty good to take away their speed and space. This one is tough to swallow. We felt we were right there, [but] unfortunately it didn't go our way. We battled hard and hopefully we can bring it to the next one." -- Sabres forward Michael Frolik
"I liked the way our guys stuck with it because it felt like we were sluggish to start the game. We're playing a desperate team in Buffalo that's playing real well lately, a dangerous hockey team on the offensive side of it. I felt like we were having some trouble checking them. We kind of got better as the game went on." -- Avalanche coach Jared Bednar

Need to know

Francouz is 4-0-1 in his past five starts with a 1.56 goals-against average and .941 save percentage. … Avalanche forward Vladislav Namestnikov played 12:17 and had two shots and three hits in his first game since being traded by the Ottawa Senators on Monday. … Nathan MacKinnon had his 299th NHL assist, moving the forward past Paul Stastny for ninth place in Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques history. … Simmonds played 12:53 in his Sabres debut and had one shot on goal and three hits. … Okposo extended his point streak to five games (four goals, two assists).

What's next

Sabres:At the Vegas Golden Knights on Friday (10 p.m. ET; SN, ATTSN-RM, MSG-B, NHL.TV)
Avalanche:At the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday (7 p.m. ET; FS-CR, ALT, NHL.TV)