Byram wins it in OT, Sabres stay hot with 7-straight wins to defeat Senators

OTTAWA -- Bowen Byram scored 31 seconds into overtime, and the Buffalo Sabres defeated the Ottawa Senators 3-2 for their seventh-straight win at Canadian Tire Centre on Tuesday.

"Whether it’s jumping into a play or guys blocking shots or just playing the right way, we’re finding ways to win games, and that’s really important," Byram said. "It’s been a lot of fun."

Byram, who opened the scoring in the first period and had an assist, one-timed a cross-slot pass from Ryan McLeod, beating Senators goalie Linus Ullmark blocker side for the game-winning goal.

“It’s been a big part of our offense with our 'D' getting involved,” Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff said. “From [Rasmus Dahlin] to him (Byram) to [Mattias Samuelsson], you know, you name it, our 'D' have been able to jump up.

“I think ‘Bo’s’ game, I really liked his game in New Jersey (3-1 victory on Sunday), and I thought his game tonight was even better.”

Noah Ostlund also scored and Alex Lyon made 24 saves for the Sabres (18-14-4), who are 8-2-1 against Ottawa in their past 11 meetings.

“It hasn’t wavered at all,” Buffalo forward Alex Tuch said of the belief in the locker room. “I think when we have every guy going, all 20 of us, you don’t know who’s going to score each night. We have everyone contributing, we have everyone playing really good defense, we’re not giving up too much. It’s winning hockey. This is what we’ve been building towards.”

Tim Stutzle scored to extend his point streak to eight games, Ridly Greig scored and Ullmark made 22 saves for the Senators (18-13-5), who had won four straight.

“I’ve liked our game here for about, I don’t know, 10 games,” Ottawa coach Travis Green said. “Our 200-foot game is solid, we’ve out chanced the other team, I think, almost every night for the last 10 games. We’re doing a lot of good things, we’ve just got to stick with it. A lot of hockey left.”

Byram gave the Sabres a 1-0 lead at 15:22 of the first period. Byram snuck in from the blue line and scored on a long seam pass from forward Jordan Greenway.

“Sometimes the puck just seems to find you or situations open up that you can join,” Byram said of his offensive game. “That’s just how it worked tonight. I’m just happy that we can go into the break with a smile on our faces, enjoy our time off and then get ready to go again.”

Greig elected to drive the net on a 2-on-1 rush with forward Michael Amadio and finished a deke on the backhand over Lyon’s glove to tie it 1-1 at 17:13.

“We’ve been winning games lately, and points,” Greig said. “Even in our losses, I think we’ve played well, so that’s good for the confidence going into the break here and hopefully we can keep that going after.”

Ostlund tipped a Byram wrister tailor-made for a deflection to give Buffalo a 2-1 lead at 6:11 of the second period.

Stutzle tied it 2-2 at 9:27. Drake Batherson, from his knees, found Stutzle alone in the slot with a centering pass, and Stutzle beat Lyon glove side with a wrist shot on the power play. Stutzle has 15 points (seven goals, eight assists) during his point streak.

“I feel like we were pretty consistent all game,” Senators forward Claude Giroux said. “They play different than most teams. We had to adapt a little bit. But at the end of the day, they had the puck a lot but I feel like we were in good positions. I think both teams played pretty good tonight.”

Lyon, sprawled out on the ice, robbed Batherson with the glove to keep it 2-2 at 17:55 of the third period.

“We needed one big save,” Ruff said of Lyon’s clutch stop. “I think, with about [two] minutes left off a little bit of a blown coverage, we got a heck of a save from our goaltender.”

Buffalo killed off a Tuch hooking penalty for the final 1:51 of the third period to send the game to overtime.

“A lot of confidence in our 'PK,'” Tuch said. “Guys went out there and did a really good job. I mean, it starts with ‘Al’ in net. He’s been unbelievable for us, especially in this stretch of games. He’s been our best penalty killer. That’s huge when you’ve got confidence in a guy like that who will just keep you in games sometimes when you need it the most.”

NOTES: The Sabres' winning streak is its longest since a 10-0-0 run from Nov. 8-27, 2018. … Buffalo center Josh Norris was plus-1 in 14:00 of ice time in his return to Ottawa. He played 236 games for the Senators from 2019-2025. … Byram was a game-high plus-3. … Stutzle became the fourth player in Senators franchise history aged 23 or younger to record multiple point streaks of eight games or more. … Ottawa captain Brady Tkachuk had a game-high six shots.