GAME RECAP: Sabres 4, Oilers 3 (OT)

EDMONTON, AB – Came all the way back, but only a point to show for it.

Connor McDavid scored with two seconds left in regulation to force overtime in a rallying third period from the Edmonton Oilers, but winger Alex Tuch gave the Buffalo Sabres the extra point by scoring 33 seconds into sudden death in a 4-3 victory at Rogers Place on Tuesday night.

McDavid had two goals, including one just 10 seconds into the third period, starting Edmonton's rally before scoring the last-gasp equalizer to send the game to overtime after his team trailed 3-0 through 40 minutes off a pair of goals from Josh Doan and an unassisted marker from Tage Thompson.

Before McDavid's late tying goal, forward Vasily Podkolzin notched his sixth goal of the campaign just 1:44 after the Oilers' captain made it 3-1 for the Sabres, but it was Alex Tuch who was left alone in front only 33 seconds into overtime to make sure they'd go with the victory after losing their late lead.

Tage Thompson led the Sabres with a goal and two assists, while Josh Doan had two goals, and Rasmus Dahlin contributed three helpers for Buffalo, who put an end to their three-game losing streak in the second of a back-to-back on Tuesday.

"Obviously not the best start," Podkolzin said. "They did a good job, too. They're a good team too, and they played strong. They're tough to play against, but we need to have a better start, that's for sure."

Despite the loss, the Oilers have now picked up at least a point in each of their three games at Rogers Place during this five-game homestand.

The Oilers will wrap things up on Thursday against the Detroit Red Wings before hitting the road for five games, starting on Saturday with the first of a back-to-back against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

FIRST PERIOD

Tuesday's rematch between the Oilers & Sabres started the same way their last meeting on Nov. 17 went in Buffalo, with the Sabres taking advantage of a late power play in the first period to open the scoring in a quiet first 20 minutes at Rogers Place.

Goaltender Colton Ellis started between the pipes to face the Oilers after making 32 saves in Buffalo's 5-1 victory last month and flashed the leather early on Edmonton's first great chance on an open slap shot from Mattias Ekholm above the circles at 13:21 of the frame.

The 25-year-old netminder stood up Adam Henrique on a two-on-one with Mattias Janmark two minutes later, and was bailed out by the right post before the period's halfway mark when a fast breakout up the middle through Vasily Podkolzin landed on Leon Draisaitl's stick for a shot from the slot that struck iron.

The Oilers finished with eight shots in the first period to the Sabres' seven, but despite Draisaitl's rip off the post, Head Coach Kris Knoblauch thought his team looked off a few too many opportunities to shoot in the opening frame.

"I can think of probably 10 times where we had the puck in the slot, and we didn't take a shot," he said. "Anytime you get into that dangerous ice, you should be looking to shoot, and whether somebody's maybe right in front of you, should you be passing it up if you can get the puck in the middle of the ice? I thought we did it way too many times, at least half a dozen times."

The Oilers killed off the Sabres' first power play with Darnell Nurse in the box for boarding Josh Doan, but were back on the penalty kill when David Tomasek's hard drive to the net saw him contact the head of Ellis for goaltender interference to sert up another Buffalo man advantage before the break.

Alex Lyon would have to come into the game to replace Ellis – possibly for concussion protocol – and would later stay in the game to begin the second period for the Sabres after Ellis didn't return to the Buffalo bench following the intermission.

But the Sabres made the Oilers pay by taking advantage of their 1:32 of power-play time before the intermission, taking a 1-0 lead on a deflection in front by Josh Doan with 59 seconds leftt in the period off the point shot delivered on goal by Rasmus Dahlin, with Tage Thompson picking up the secondary helper.

The Sabres scored with 57 seconds left in the first period back on Nov. 17 against the Oilers and were looking to bounce back from their 7-4 loss to the Flames in the first of back-to-back games on Monday.

SECOND PERIOD

Despite having a goal overturned by a coach's challenge, the Sabres stole it right back off the stick of Evan Bouchard before tallying another on the power play later in the dominant middle frame from Buffalo that put them in command through two periods in Edmonton.

The Sabres looked to have taken a 2-0 lead midway through the second period when Stuart Skinner fought off a hard shot from Rasmus Dahlin that was batted down by Tage Thompson and put away on the rebound by Alex Tuch at the right post, but a coach's challenge for a hand pass wound up reversing the call to keep it a one-goal game.

But the visitors would get it right back 1:29 later after Thompson forced a turnover off the stick of Bouchard as the defenceman tried to escape a hard Sabres forecheck by walking out from behind the net, only to have it stolen off his stick and put past Skinner for a 2-0 lead for Buffalo.

"Mostly a conversation the next day about what had happened on the play," Knoblauch said about how they approach learning from the turnover. "To tear a strip off him in between periods or on the bench, I don't think that's productive. He knows he made a mistake. He knows that that's not the right play. And it'd be different if Evan didn't care; if Evan didn't feel that. He believed that he did make a mistake, but he has pretty good self-awareness, and he understands what happened on the play."

Just 56 seconds after that, the Sabres were back on the power play, where Josh Doan added insult to injury in a disappointing middle frame from the Oilers, taking a pass out front from Thompson in the corner and going through the legs into the far corner to increase Buffalo's lead to 3-0 after 40 minutes.

"I don't know if you can put your finger exactly on it, but sometimes, it's gonna happen that way, and you have to find a way to get yourself out of it," Nugent-Hopkins said. "We did that in the third. Obviously, if you're not feeling it, you kind of want to limit their chances and not let them get away a little bit, like get up three. But at the same time, we just battled until the last second and found a way."

THIRD PERIOD

From being down 3-0 to begin the third period to tying things up 3-3 in the game's dying moments, it was a heroic fightback from the Oilers that once again proved their never out of a game, but it's not a position they want to find themselves in regularly.

"We put ourselves in that position right from the start, but I think being down three or four goals is nothing, and the guys have proved it so many times already," Podkolzin said. "But we need to get a job done. We're obviously having lots of good habits, and we have the best players in the world here, so we have to win it more."

The Oilers started the third period just how they would've wanted when a long dump-in from Mattias Ekholm off the opening faceoff ended up bouncing off the boards and evading any sort of contact from a battle between Zach Hyman and Mattias Samuelsson before falling into the path of Connor McDavid.

With speed, McDavid picked up the loose puck and split the middle through four players inside the left circle before cutting to the net and rounding the outstretched Alex Lyon to lift his effort under the crossbar for a quick answer that made it 3-1 for the Sabres with 19:50 still left in regulation.

"I thought we just played with a little more urgency, a little more pace to our game," Knoblauch said. "Especially the second period, I thought we extended our shifts and just didn't really set up the next line very well. You see that right away from the third period where Connor scores, and then even after that, we had some changes where we're in the offensive zone, we have possession, we get new guys out there, and ultimately it sets up the next line.

As per NHL Edge stats, McDavid has recorded the fastest speed burst this season at 39.61 km/hr, and his rapid attack just 10 seconds into the third period on Tuesday for his 15th goal of the year was the captain's sixth tally (11th point) in his last seven games.

Edmonton cut Buffalo's lead to 3-2 only 1:44 later off some hard work in front of the net from Vasily Podkolzin, who fought off defenceman Jacob Bryson in front to find a loose puck and bash it past the pad of Lyon for his sixth goal of the season, putting the Oilers within a goal only two minutes into the frame.

"We just understood where we were at and needed a push there for the first five, and got it right away," Nugent-Hopkins said. "But I don't think we played a bad game. It's just a matter of having a little more energy, and they obviously didn't want to give anything up, and we couldn't find a way to beat them early. But we did a great job of clawing our way back."

The Oilers received big goals from each of their top two lines to begin this frame after their top players played a big part in scoring 15 goals over their previous two games, receiving a combined total of 23 points (8G, 15A) from McDavid, Draisaitl, Nugent-Hopkins, Hyman and Bouchard in wins over Seattle and Winnipeg.

Perhaps the only thing that was missing was a power-play goal, with the Oilers having two more chances to even things up in the third period with the man advantage, but failing to capitalize on any one of their four opportunities on Tuesday with their number-one-ranked power play.

"The power play has been running really well lately, and Ihought we had a looks tonight," Hyman said. "I had one on the backside I'd like to have back. We had a couple of other looks, but we're not going to score every night on the power play as much as we'd like to. But I thought we were able to get back in the game five-on-five, and then a bunch of huge kills."

That didn't prevent their penalty kill from needing to come up with multiple vital interventions to keep it a one-goal game, killing off 42 seconds of five-on-three with 12 minutes past in the third period before stopping the Sabres' power play again with less than three minutes left in regulation.

"I thought we had some looks. I thought they did a pretty good job on the kill," Nugent-Hopkins said. "They obviously don't want to give up the three-pass plays or the back-door plays, so they obviously did their homework and tried to limit us to the outside as much as possible, just like we try to do. But I thought we still had looks. We were working for the puck, trying to get it back, trying our best, but overall they did a good job eliminating our good looks."

Those crucial kills in the third period gave the Oilers one final opportunity to pull Stuart Skinner for the extra attacker, pushing for an equalizer at six-on-five in the last minute, and they left it to the last second to force this game to overtime.

After the puck escaped the Buffalo zone with less than 20 seconds left, the Oilers loaded up for one last attack that saw Nugent-Hopkins force it towards goal as the contest reached a critical breaking point, with the puck finding its way through bodies around the crease to land on the tape of McDavid.

McDavid quickly fired it home from the left circle for the last-gasp equalizer with 1.5 seconds left on the clock, scoring his 16th goal of the season to extend the game to overtime and guarantee at least a point and a three-game point streak for the Oilers on home ice.

OVERTIME

For all the excitement of a last-gasp equalizer from the Oilers, the Sabres ended this one quickly in overtime with a simple finish from Alex Tuch.

Just 33 seconds into the extra frame, Tuch was left wide open in front following a Sabres' zone entry by the Oilers for their former teammate Ryan McLeod to connect him with a pass between the hashmarks that he flicked past Skinner to his glove side to give the Sabres the 3-2 victory at Rogers Place.

"I think there was just some confusion on who was checking the puck," Knoblauch said. "And then, ultimately, we give them too much time, and the guy slips in behind. So I think each guy out there was assuming the other guy was going to be checking the puck, and we had three guys around it but not checking."