Comrie, Sabres hold off Jets for 5th straight win

WINNIPEG --Eric Comrie made 19 saves for his first win since Nov. 2, and the Buffalo Sabres held on for their fifth straight victory, 3-2 against the Winnipeg Jets at Canada Life Centre on Thursday.

"When the guys play like that in front of you, it's a pretty easy night," Comrie said. "That was the best I've seen us play all year. That was incredible."
Owen Power scored for the third straight game, Tage Thompson had a goal and an assist, and Jeff Skinner and Rasmus Dahlin each had two assists for the Sabres (26-19-3), who are 9-1-1 in their past 11 road games.
"Owen is pretty amazing, obviously, three goals in a row, it's impressive at his age," Buffalo coach Don Granato said. "What he does on a nightly basis is just amazing when you factor in his age (20) and lack of experience in our league, to dominate situations and really full games the way he does."

Nate Schmidt and Pierre-Luc Dubois scored, and Connor Hellebuyck made 33 saves for the Jets (31-18-1).
"We'll get a lot more consistent with our play when we stop being so stubborn with the puck," Winnipeg coach Rick Bowness said. "We'll play a lot faster, and when you're playing fast it's a lot more fun, and you'll be a lot more consistent. We're slowing ourselves down and making it too easy for the opposition by our puck management."
Power made it 1-0 at 10:32 of the second period, skating across the slot and scoring from the left face-off circle with a wrist shot. He is the first rookie defenseman in Sabres history with a three-game goal streak.
"[Power] is an impressive player in this league," Granato said. "I know he hasn't been talked about for rookie of the year. It's astonishing to me because of how he couldn't be."
Thompson made it 2-0 at 14:15 with a one-timer from the left hash mark, completing a tic-tac-toe play with Skinner and Alex Tuch.
"[Thompson] is a big body, it's hard to miss him up there," Tuch said. "[Skinner] made an unbelievable pass to hit me wide. Sometimes you've got to throw an extra pass in to beat a goalie like Hellebuyck. He played really well tonight. We weren't able to beat him clean. We had to beat him on a couple backdoors and a couple seeing-eye shots. I think our chemistry is growing a little bit, got a little lucky too."

Victor Olofsson extended it to 3-0 on the power play at 10:30 of the third period with his eighth goal in nine games.
"That was a dominant performance by our team, and if we can do that every single night that's a special team we have in here," Comrie said. "That's a fun group to play behind and a fun group to be a part of. That's Buffalo Sabre hockey right now, it's a lot of fun and exciting."
Schmidt cut it to 3-1 on the power play, scoring from the right hash mark at 15:14 before Dubois made it 3-2 at 19:17 with Hellebuyck pulled for the extra attacker.
"I thought we had a couple chances in the first period, [but] I don't know if we had more than three times in their zone in the second," Schmidt said. "We had some chances in the third period where we were pressing, but I'd like for us to be pressing for most of the game."

Sabres forward Dylan Cozens left the game after colliding with Schmidt in the third period and did not return, and defenseman Mattias Samuelsson was a late scratch with a lower-body injury.
Granato said Cozens is "good" and could have returned, and Samuelsson is "very much an option" to play Saturday at the Minnesota Wild.
NOTES: Dahlin set NHL career highs in assists (41) and points (55) in 47 games this season. He had 40 assists and 53 points in 80 games last season. … Thompson, playing his 48th game, tied his NHL career high of 68 points (34 goals, 34 assists) set last season in 78 games. … Samuelsson was replaced by Kale Clague, who had two shots in 15:15. … Tuch has nine points (three goals, six assists) in a seven-game point streak. … Thompson (three goals, seven assists) and Skinner (two goals, six assists) each extended his point streak to six games.