Sharpen Up: December 14, 2018

The Sabres are now winners of back-to-back games as they hit the road for a pair of games this weekend. They'll face the Metropolitan Division-leading Washington Capitals on Saturday and the resurgent Boston Bruins, who have won three in a row, on Sunday.
Buffalo defeated Arizona 3-1 last night at KeyBank Center thanks to goals from Casey Mittelstadt, Jeff Skinner and Evan Rodrigues, and 25 saves from Carter Hutton.
Here's what you need to know.

About last night

From the Lexus Postgame Report…
Following their come-from-behind victory on Tuesday night, Jack Eichel called for the Buffalo Sabres to start churning out more complete efforts. Forty-eight hours passed, and they got one.
The Sabres dictated all three periods and translated their defensive efforts into secondary scoring in a 3-1 win over the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday, their second straight victory.

"We played a really good, solid 60 minutes," Sabres coach Phil Housley said. "Up and down our lineup, everybody contributed."
The game was a stark contrast to the Sabres' loss to Philadelphia on Saturday, which followed a similar pattern at the start: a quick 2-0 lead for Buffalo, following by an even quicker response from their opponent. The Sabres went on to deviate from their game plan in that contest and felt it showed in the outcome.

This time they stuck to what worked, even when Fischer scored to bring the Coyotes within one a mere 25 seconds after Skinner had given the Sabres a two-goal lead, . They managed their way through the second period and then pounced in the third, outshooting the Coyotes 11-6.
"It was a tight game," 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."

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You can read the full recap here.

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Prospects Update

We checked in with Casey Fitzgerald (third round, 2016) and Christopher Brown (sixth round, 2014), who are the co-captains at Boston College in this week's Prospects Update. They're looking to lead the Eagles back to the Frozen Four for the first time since their freshman year. In the years since, they've learned that it's not easy to make it back to the main event.
Now seniors and serving as two of three captains at B.C., Brown and Fitzgerald are instilling that message on a young Eagles team looking to make it back to the Frozen Four in Buffalo this April.
They haven't been to the NCAA Tournament since that freshman campaign despite finishing atop the Hockey East standings in each of the past two seasons. They lost in the conference finals in 2017 and in the semifinals last season.
But after an 0-5 start to begin their senior years, they think they know the recipe to get back.
"The team I had my freshman year, we had a lot of talent," Fitzgerald said. "We were really, really deep, and we could go into games and maybe some guys would slack off a little or something, but we had such high-end talent that we could get the job done every night.
"We have a lot of talent on this team, but I think our goals are we have to come in, we have to be a work horse team, a team that every night brings their work bucket. That's a culture thing, that's a mentality that we've kind of instilled here."
Check out the full story here.