Sabres send Coyotes to fourth straight loss

BUFFALO -- Sam Reinhart had an assist for the Buffalo Sabres to extend his NHL career-high point streak to eight games in a 3-1 win against the Arizona Coyotes at KeyBank Center on Thursday.

Casey Mittelstadt, Jeff Skinner and Evan Rodrigues scored for the Sabres (19-9-4), who have won two in a row following a five-game losing streak. Carter Hutton made 25 saves.
"It was a tight game," Buffalo coach Phil Housley said. "You never know which way the direction of the game's going to go, but I thought our guys took the onus and the responsibility of just managing the game the right way. As a result, we were able to lock a 2-1 lead after two periods. It's a credit to them."
WATCH: [All Coyotes vs. Sabres highlights]
Christian Fischer scored, and Darcy Kuemper made 30 saves for the Coyotes (13-15-2), who have lost four in a row after a four-game winning streak.
"You lose and win as a team," Arizona coach Rick Tocchet said. "So regardless of the guy, it seems like we are making giveaway mistakes repeatedly. And it's not a lot of them, they just end up in our net."

Mittelstadt scored from the top of the left face-off circle 48 seconds into the game to put the Sabres up 1-0. Conor Sheary intercepted Coyotes defenseman Alex Goligoski's pass in the neutral zone and left a drop pass for Mittelstadt, for his fifth goal of the season and first in nine games.
"That's kind of how it's been all year," Mittelstadt said of his line's recent offensive struggles. "I think we played well tonight. We were in their zone pretty much every shift and making plays and controlling the puck. That's what we do best, I think. When we have the puck in their zone, we're making plays."
Goligoski's pass in the Buffalo zone ended up on Reinhart's stick, and the Sabres forward sent a stretch pass to Jack Eichel to create a 2-on-1 with Jeff Skinner, who made it 2-0 with a shot from the slot at 6:54.

"Those are huge mistakes," Goligoski said. "I pretty much have a hand in all of [the goals]. It was a bad game, and when I play like that, we're not going to win a hockey game. It's just frustrating."
Reinhart's is the second-longest active point streak in the NHL, trailing Colorado Avalanche forward Mikko Rantanen and Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin, who each has at least one point in 12 straight games.
Fischer scored 25 seconds after Skinner to make it 2-1, taking Richard Panik's pass behind the net and sliding it in glove side at 7:19.
Rodrigues scored from the edge of the right circle to extend Buffalo's lead to 3-1 at 6:28 of the third period.

They said it

"I was out there for all of their goals, so it's obviously not a great night for myself, so I'll definitely take blame for that. Other than that, I think the rest of the team played good enough to win the game." -- Coyotes defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson
"You never want to miss any time. It's frustrating. So just get back out there and have fun and help the team is obviously what I want to do and what I'm here for. It was fun to get out and just to compete. I really enjoy that, I thrive in that, so it was fun to play." -- Sabres goalie Carter Hutton on his first start in three games after missing one game with an upper-body injury

Need to know

The Sabres are 14-3-1 in their past 18 games against the Coyotes. … It was Skinner's fifth game-winning goal, matching the third-highest total of his NHL career (2011-12). He had seven in 2015-16 and six in 2013-14.

What's next

Coyotes: At the New York Rangers on Friday (7 p.m. ET; MSG 2, FS-A, NHL.TV)
Sabres: At the Washington Capitals on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; NBCSWA MSG-B, NHL.TV)