Athanasiou scores twice, Kings shut out Sabres

BUFFALO -- Andreas Athanasiou scored twice to help the Los Angeles Kings to a 3-0 win against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center on Sunday.

Athanasiou was playing for the first time since Feb. 23 after being a healthy scratch in the previous five games.
"Any time games are close, obviously those are when the goals become bigger and more important," he said. "Obviously in those 0-0 games, it's important to get that first one, and I definitely obviously like getting goals and helping the team out. Tonight was a big one and was a big win for us."
Cal Petersen made 19 saves for the Kings (31-19-7), who have won seven of their past nine games.
"Tonight's game was probably very close to our identity as a group and this year," Los Angeles assistant Trent Yawney said. "The one thing our guys are really comfortable with is in those close games. Those 1-0, those 0-0 games, the leadership has played in a lot of them, and they just never beat themselves, which is a trait that you want. And our leadership core kind of provides that."

Dustin Tokarski made 28 saves for the Sabres (18-31-8), who lost for the first time in three games.
"It was just kind of a grind-it-out game and that's the game you have to learn how to play sometimes," Sabres forward Kyle Okposo said. "And I thought that we did a decent enough job sticking with our game plan. Yeah, we turned the puck over quite a bit, I thought, but they did a good job. I mean, give them credit. They stayed in their structure very well tonight and we just had to try and make a play to score a goal. And that's what those games come down to. They played well structurally, and we just didn't make that one play. It was a 1-0 game."
Athanasiou put the Kings ahead 1-0 at 16:55 of the second period. Defenseman Mikey Anderson sent a stretch pass to Athanasiou, who skated to the left circle on a 2-on-1 and scored under the crossbar for his 100th NHL goal.
"He definitely has that skill set, for sure," Yawney said. "And so it was so good for him to get back in, and I thought he played real, real strong. On his goal, in particular, was a strong track to start it off, and he got rewarded at the other end with a 2-on-1."

Athanasiou made it 2-0 with an empty-net goal with 59 seconds remaining in the third period.
"Those are big moments and big times in the game," Athanasiou said. "Obviously, you want to be out there and be able to help get the puck out, ice the game, and fortunately it worked out tonight."
Brown scored another empty-net goal with seven seconds left for the 3-0 final.
"It kind of goes hand in hand with what I've said all along: Defense is much easier than offense and offense takes longer to develop and evolve," Sabres coach Don Granato said. "And tonight you saw. When a team wants to shut it down, you have to evolve. This happens in every playoff series there is. That's why the statistics are you have a lead after one, lead after two, the winning percentage is astronomical for this reason. If a team is good at shutting it down, offense is extremely hard. For us, we didn't get the win, we didn't get any points, but the video is actually … the ability to learn from this is actually really high and significant."
NOTES: Sabres forward Alex Tuch left the game at 11:05 of the third period after crashing head first into the post. "No head injury, so that's ruled out," Granato said. "He'll just get some imaging. He'll be sore because of the impact, but the testing here was as positive as it could be. Now we'll get some imaging to make sure it's nothing more that could be hidden." … Kings forward Viktor Arvidsson left the game at 4:49 of the third period with a lower-body injury and is day to day, Yawney said. … Los Angeles coach Todd McLellan is expected to be out of COVID-19 protocol and back behind the bench against the Boston Bruins on Monday. … Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin had his eight-game home point streak end. … Buffalo was shut out for the fifth time this season.