Sabres score three late in third, rally past Flyers

Jeff Skinner and Rasmus Asplund scored 25 seconds apart late in the third period to lift the Buffalo Sabres to a 5-3 come-from-behind win against the Philadelphia Flyers at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia on Sunday.

Skinner crashed the net at 16:57 to tie the game 3-3 and Asplund put the Sabres ahead 4-3 at 17:22. Casey Mittelstadt scored into an empty net with 24 seconds remaining for the 5-3 final.
"You just have to stick with your game, and I thought we had some chances," Skinner said. "Weren't able to capitalize and obviously as the game goes along, it sort of tightens up and desperation level sort of rises a little bit. Lately we've been able to find those plays and that's what you need, especially late in games. You need big plays in big moments.
"On top of it, I think Linus [Ullmark] played great. He made some huge saves to keep us in it and then a couple big goals. 'Aspy,' obviously huge play there going to the net and getting the game-winner for us. It's a good feeling when everyone chips in like that."
Jacob Bryson had two assists and Ullmark made 40 saves for the Sabres (10-25-6).

Shayne Gostisbehere and Joel Farabee each had a goal and an assist, and Carter Hart made 26 saves for the Flyers (19-16-6).
"It's hard to explain," Flyers coach Alain Vigneault said. "We had that game in total control. We were giving them almost nothing. We just blew it. The icing that we didn't need to do and lost the puck in our end in the corner there when we had control and they found a way to jump on one of their rebounds. We just couldn't get it done."
Oskar Lindblom gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead when Gostisbehere's shot from the left wall hit Lindblom in front before going off Ullmark's skate and in at 11:36 of the first period.
Farabee pushed in the loose rebound of his own shot on the power play to make it 2-0 at 14:14.
"That was a desperate hockey team over there and they need the points," Sabres forward Kyle Okposo said. "We knew that they were going to come out hard and they did. We could've folded when it was 2-0, and we didn't. So we're learning how to win games different ways. You need to do that to become a good team and we're starting to take steps."
Sam Reinhart cut it to 2-1 from the low slot off a Sabres faceoff win at 3:56 of the second period.
Arttu Ruotsalainen, playing in his second NHL game, tied it 2-2 with his first NHL goal 46 seconds later, with a top-corner one-timer from the right circle off a pass from Dylan Cozens at 4:42.
"It's awesome. It's a dream," Ruotsalainen said. "I think it was like a 3-on-2 rush and 'Cozy' made a nice play. I just closed my eyes and made a shot and it went in."

Gostisbehere, uncovered in the slot, put the Flyers ahead 3-2 at 3:47 of the third period.
"We had a nice 3-2 lead. Blew a 2-0 lead, then had a 3-2 lead and we just let it slip away," Gostisbehere said. "It definitely hurts right now. I don't know what else you could do. We've got to move on and get some points in these next games."
Skinner's tying goal went in off his skate and was upheld after a video review. Asplund broke the tie when he put in a rebound 25 seconds later.
"We've had a much better belief system progressively the last couple weeks and it's getting stronger," Sabres coach Don Granato said. "You can feel that down the bench, up and down the bench. More confident speak, less emotional speak. So, yeah, a lot of subtlety but good signs."
Vigneault said, "We made some mistakes that we just gave them goals. Three of them. That face-off goal and obviously the third and fourth goal. Things that you can't do in this League and things that we did tonight with some of our most experienced players."
NOTES:The Sabres scored three or more goals in the final five minutes of regulation for the 11th time in their history. … The 25-second span is the Sabres' fastest two goals in a game this season; their previous best was 37 seconds against the Flyers on March 31. … It's the sixth time in Buffalo history that the Sabres have won in regulation when trailing in the final four minutes of a game. … Hart, who played in his 100th NHL game, is 0-5-2 in his past seven games. ... The Flyers (5-3-0) won five of the eight games against the Sabres (3-3-2) in the season series.