O'Reilly continues to step up in Sabres' win over Lightning

With the best team in the NHL pushing to make a comeback, Ryan O'Reilly proved to have one more play in him.
O'Reilly and the Buffalo Sabres were clinging to a one-goal lead in the final minute of their game against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday when he forced a turnover in the defensive zone, carried the puck up the ice and fed Sam Reinhart for an empty-net goal with 7.1 seconds remaining, sealing a 5-3 win.
The assist marked the third point of the night for O'Reilly, who now has six points in two games since it was announced that Jack Eichel would be out indefinitely with a high-ankle sprain.

"The thing I like about his game is he's really stepped up in all ways," Sabres coach Phil Housley said. "Not only on the scoreboard, but in his own zone as well."

O'Reilly has come to be known as a Swiss Army Knife of sorts during his three seasons in Buffalo, and he lived up to that reputation in every sense on Tuesday. On offense alone, he tallied a goal and an assist on the power play and tallied a team-high five shots.

Perhaps of equal importance was his impact both on the penalty kill and in the faceoff circle. He accumulated 4:10 of shorthanded ice time, second only to Rasmus Ristolainen, and blocked a heavy shot from Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman during a long 5-on-3 kill in the second period.
In the circle, O'Reilly won 25 of his 42 draws. It was the continuation of what has potential to be a historic season for the forward, who began the night with a league-leading 831 faceoffs won, on pace for the third-most wins by any player since the league began keeping faceoff stats in 1997-98.
"He does it all," said Reinhart, who scored two goals on assists from O'Reilly. "I've been with him and Jack a lot lately, and they've both been unbelievable in the faceoff circle. That makes it so much easier as a winger, that makes it so much easier on everyone when you start with the puck.
"It's just little things like that, and the two-way game he has is something everyone can watch and learn from him."
After earning a win over the second-place Bruins in Boston on Saturday, the Sabres have now beaten the NHL's top two teams in a span of four days. The victories were similar, O'Reilly said, in that on both occasions the Sabres came into the game with the mindset to stick with their game plan.
The win was not without adversity. The Sabres twice jumped out to one-goal leads, first on a goal from Nicholas Baptiste and later a power-play goal from Reinhart, only to see Tampa Bay tie the game on goals from Yanni Gourde and Vladimir Namestnikov.

Scott Wilson scored to regain the lead with 4:13 remaining in the second period and O'Reilly added a power-play goal 3:41 into the third, finding Kyle Okposo with a no-look feed to the slot and then wrapping behind the net to bury a rebound off the end boards.
Ryan Callahan brought Tampa Bay back within a goal with 8:24 remaining, but the Sabres held strong.
"That's a really good hockey team over there but we showed good composure and good maturity when we had a bad bounce or we got hemmed in," O'Reilly said. "We didn't panic. Even when they scored the at the end, we stuck with it. It was nice to see and it's a good lesson for us."
The Sabres went 4-for-5 on the penalty kill against the Lightning's third-ranked power play, including a 5-on-3 kill that lasted 1:53 in the second period. The Sabres killed those penalties thanks in part to key blocks from O'Reilly, Marco Scandella and Jacob Josefson.
Chad Johnson, who made 26 saves for his first home win of the season, faced just one shot during the two-man advantage. The KeyBank Center crowd took notice, as did the players on the bench.
"I think that's something that guys are learning, you just have to do that to win," Wilson said. "Scandy obviously had a great block, probably stopped a goal on that one, and the first person to jump up was probably Johnny and everybody on the bench was all excited about it."

Offensively, the Sabres are continuing to prove they have players who are capable of stepping up in Eichel's absence. O'Reilly has 18 points (9+9) in his last 16 games. Reinhart has 16 (6+10) in 13, and Wilson - who was a healthy scratch last Thursday - has six (3+3) in 10.
And, if their performances against Boston and Tampa Bay prove anything, it's that they can win in Eichel's absence, too.
"I think [the win over Boston] gave us a little confidence, which we've clearly been lacking for a little while," Wilson said. "Knowing that we can beat these teams if we show up and play our best is rewarding for a lot of the guys in here who have been going through a bit of a slump or a struggle."
"Being able to show that we can beat those two teams means we can beat anybody."

Up next

The Sabres will hit the road for a matchup with the Ottawa Senators on Thursday. Coverage on MSG-B begins at 7 p.m. with the GMC Game Night Pregame Show. Radio coverage can be found on WGR 550, with puck drop scheduled for 7:30.
After facing the Senators, the Sabres return home on Saturday for an afternoon matchup with the Los Angeles Kings. It will be Kids Day at KeyBank Center, meaning your purchase of one 300-level ticket comes with the opportunity for four additional "kids tickets" priced at $15 apiece.
Puck drop on Saturday is scheduled for 1 p.m.