The top-line winger had plenty of chances against the Flyers. He moved in on a 2-on-1 early in the first period, but his shot missed its mark. Later in the game, he found himself all alone with another shot to beat Flyers goalie Felix Sandstrom and couldn't convert.
"I was frustrated with myself, I didn't bury the last breakaway I had, so I thought I'd want to maybe deke on that one instead," Tuch said.
Tuch's theatrics illustrated two things on Saturday night: that these Sabres are still alive in the hunt for a playoff spot, and that he's finally healthy after returning from an injury in the heat of the race.
"You can see that he came back soon to help us, from injury," Sabres coach Don Granato said. "Too soon to play his game."
The Sabres may be getting healthy at precisely the right time. Buoyed by the additions of Tuch and Mattias Samuelsson from the injury list, they've now run their point streak to five straight games with a 4-0-1 mark.
"Those two guys healthy, Tuch up front and Samuelsson on the back end, obviously make everybody's life so much easier," Granato said. "Nobody has to try and fill in any voids and it was big because of it."
Tuch helped spearhead a four-goal outburst in the second period. Buffalo fell behind early on a goal by Morgan Frost as the Flyers outshot the Sabres 14-5 and controlled play for much of the first period. But they got a redo when Kyle Okposo tallied with ten seconds left to even the score.
"He is our leader. Those are little things that matter," Granato said of Okposo. "Even when he shot the puck, you could see the intent, the aggression. There was a lot in that shot. That was something we desperately needed tonight and that goal was big at the end of the first."
Okposo's 11th of the season gave the Sabres new life in the second and set the stage for Tuch to take over. He opened the scoring just 1:25 into the period after Casey Mittelstadt poked a puck away from Philadelphia defenseman Ivan Pronorov and fed Tuch with a drop pass for the go-ahead goal.
"He's (Mittelstadt) a guy who has really kind of gone under the radar. He's done a nice job for us. Obviously now he gets a chance to play with Tuch and a chance to play with (Jeff) Skinner and you can see his skill set shine a little brighter."
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen started in goal for the Sabres and stopped 39 of 42 shots. Luukkonen was tested early and kept the Sabres afloat, allowing them to find their legs in the second period.
"We didn't have legs in the first. The break helped us," Granato said. "The tweaks that we were able to make, they were able to just find the calm. Even in the first when we say we didn't have our legs, we were hurrying plays."
Skinner and Jordan Greenway also got in on the scoring outburst in the second period as the Sabres built a 5-2 lead heading into the third period. Travic Konecny, the Flyers' leading scorer, beat Luukkonen just over five minutes into the period before Tuch's late-game dagger sealed the game.
"We're still in the fight, it's a great thing to see and I like the way our guys are playing and approaching it," Granato said.
