Sabres build early lead but fall in road matchup with Oilers 

EDMONTON – JJ Peterka scored his second goal of the game to give the Buffalo Sabres a lead during the second period, but the Edmonton Oilers responded with six unanswered to win 8-3 inside Rogers Place on Thursday.

Zach Hyman parked in front of Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and deflected a shot by Mattias Ekholm to tie the score at 3-3 with 47.9 seconds remaining in the middle period. Darnell Nurse scored the winning goal on a shot from the point 4:38 into the third, with Ekholm adding another on the rush 1:02 later.

Hyman, Ryan McLeod, and Connor Brown all added goals during the final five minutes.

“We made mistakes in the third period that we haven’t made in quite some time, and it was in a couple of areas,” Sabres coach Don Granato said.

“Our forwards did not support our defensemen with gaps and (Edmonton shot) some pucks to the net from the point where we turned pucks over in our own zone. A couple areas that have been really uncharacteristic for us, especially in the last couple of months. It happened and you could see the guys were frustrated and that probably compounded it a little bit more.”

The Sabres dropped to seven points behind the Detroit Red Wings for the second wild card in the Eastern Conference with 11 games remaining. The Red Wings defeated the New York Islanders 6-3 earlier Thursday night.

Buffalo led 2-0 in the first period on the strength of goals from Peterka and Victor Olofsson. Peterka received the puck alone in front of the Edmonton net and beat goaltender Stuart Skinner with a wrist shot to open the scoring just 1:38 into the game. Olofsson retrieved a broken pass in the high slot and sent a turn-around shot past Skinner with 3:26 left in the period.

Edmonton answered before the first intermission in the form of a power-play goal from Leon Draisaitl. Ekholm pulled up in the left circle on the rush and buried a shot to the far side to tie the score at 2-2 during the second period.

The Sabres were able to respond with Peterka’s second goal, a shot from the side of the net set up by Connor Clifton, before the Oilers took control.

“It’s obviously a frustrating loss, and I thought our first and second were good hockey,” said Tage Thompson, who had an assist. “You go into the third, tie game, chance to win an important game. They get a couple goals and you’re chasing from behind. They get another one and then it feels out of reach, and then it’s a lot of frustration I think we let creep into our game at the end.”

Nurse’s go-ahead goal came at the end of a shift in the Buffalo zone in which the Oilers forced multiple turnovers on the forecheck. Ekholm’s second goal was scored on an odd-man rush, set up by a no-look, drop-back pass from Draisaitl.

“Just not good enough,” Peterka said. “I think we gave up way too many odd-man rushes, were sloppy with the puck. And, yeah, I think we weren’t engaged enough in the D-zone.”

Here’s more from the loss in Edmonton.

1. The Sabres made changes to both the forward lines and power-play units prior to the game, including a move for Peterka to a line with Thompson and Alex Tuch. The change paid early dividends when Tuch outbattled Ekholm and made a lunging pass to set up Peterka’s first goal on their opening shift.

The Sabres led 16-8 in shot attempts with the trio of Peterka, Thompson, Tuch on the ice at 5-on-5. Peterka said they went on the ice with a mindset to play simple.

“I think play hard on them, play hard on their D, and play with a lot of pace,” he said.

2. Peterka, Tuch, and Thompson were also part of a new-look unit on the power play alongside Rasmus Dahlin and Jordan Greenway. The other unit consisted of Zach Benson, Dylan Cozens, Jeff Skinner, Bowen Byram, and Owen Power.

While the Sabres finished 0-for-3 on the power play, they generated seven shots with the extra man and had multiple chances turned away by Stuart Skinner.

“Power play was much, much better from the standpoint of even confidence,” Granato said. “They had more looks and more possession.”

3. Luukkonen started in goal and made 31 saves. He had allowed three goals or fewer in 26 of his last 27 games prior to Thursday.

“Absolutely tough the way Ukko has been playing to not give him support tonight,” Granato said.

Up next

The five-game road trip concludes Sunday in Calgary. Pregame coverage on MSG/MSG+ begins at 8:30 p.m. with puck drop scheduled for 9. Radio coverage can be found on WGR 550.