Sabres score 4 straight in 3rd, surge past Golden Knights

LAS VEGAS -- The Buffalo Sabres scored four consecutive goals in the third period in a 5-2 victory against the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena on Friday.

Casey Mittelstadt scored twice and had an assist, Dylan Cozens had a goal and two assists, and Devon Levi made 33 saves for Buffalo (13-15-3), which has won three of its past five.

“That was a great effort all around,” Sabres coach Don Granato said. “We looked fresh. We looked rested. We took advantage of that. We had great legs all the way through. We had to come back in the third, tied 1-1. We fall down 2-1 and the response was outstanding.”

Jack Eichel and Ivan Barbashev scored for Vegas (20-6-5), which had its four-game winning streak and nine-game point streak (6-0-3) end. Logan Thompson made 22 saves.

“None of us are good enough in the third period tonight,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “We let another lead get away from us without getting points tonight. So that's a concern for me.

“We have the lead in the third period and we found ways the other two nights, today it caught up to us. We never got the opportunities to get the points. So after 2-1 to 4-2. ... That to me is a problem.”

Eichel gave Vegas a 2-1 lead 3:22 of the third period, scoring on a rebound from a Paul Cotter shot. Eichel extended his point streak to nine games (14 points; five goals, nine assists), tying the Golden Knights record shared by five other players.

“We had a ton of great looks early. It would have been nice to get out the first period with a lead,” Vegas captain Mark Stone said. “We put ourselves in the right position up 2-1 with 12 minutes left in the game. We got to close those out.”

Mittelstadt started the Buffalo run with a short-side goal at 5:01 to tie it 2-2.

Zach Benson gave Buffalo a 3-2 lead at 9:29, skating to his right and lifting the puck over a sprawling Thompson.

Alex Tuch extended the lead to 4-2 at 11:12 after a Barbashev giveaway resulted in a 2-on-1 rush.

“Zach, again, is only 18 years old and looks like he’s been in the League for quite some time,” Granato said. “We finally get Tuch back in and feeling good. It’s a game or two, and it’s starting to look like he’s Tuch.”

Mittelstadt scored an empty-net goal at 17:19 for the 5-2 final.

Cozens scored at 7:42 of the second period to give Buffalo a 1-0 lead. He forced a turnover in the neutral zone and finished a give-and-go with Mittelstadt.

“It was a big challenge tonight going against the defending [Stanley] Cup champs,” Cozens said. “We talked about it before that it was going to be a man's game. And I think we did a lot of things good tonight, we played kind of a full 60 We didn't make too many mistakes and we capitalized on our chances.”

Barbashev tied it 1-1 at 13:44 after collecting the rebound off a Nicolas Roy shot on the power play.

“We played losing hockey, and we what do we do? We lost," Cassidy said. "So there's a little bit of a lesson to be learned there. We don't lose a lot, but we lost tonight because of I think much more our actions. I'll give Buffalo credit for doing what they do best when we messed up, which was you know, create offensive and good looks and they finished.”