GAME RECAP: Sabres 5, Oilers 1

BUFFALO, NY – The Sabres showed their cutting edge.

Led by their NHL rookies, the Buffalo Sabres struck down the Edmonton Oilers 5-1 at KeyBank Center on Monday night, utilizing forward Noah Ostlund's first-career multi-goal game and goaltender Colten Ellis's 29-save performance to give the Eastern Conference's last-place team two valuable points.

After Ostlund opened the scoring on the power play with 57 seconds remaining in the first period, Jack Roslovic equalized for the Oilers by extending his point streak to five with his seventh goal of the campaign 4:29 into the middle frame, but the Sabres answered back with two goals in 1:02 to take a 3-1 lead.

During the third, the Oilers couldn't manage the puck effectively before Ostlund made it a three-goal advantage for Buffalo by netting his second of the night inside the eight-minute mark of the period, before Tage Thompson added an empty-netter to make it a 5-1 final with 2:23 remaining in regulation.

"I thought we got off to a pretty good start," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. "There were good chances and energy, and then after their power-play goal, we let up a little bit just with confidence or motion. We didn't have the same jump as we had starting the game. After that, I thought Buffalo played with that emotion, that speed, and was the better team in the second half of the game."

The defeat marked Edmonton's fourth loss over its last six trips to Buffalo, dropping the club's overall record to 9-8-4 this season.

"It's hard to say right now, so we'd better figure out how to win games as soon as possible, because we're not happy with what's going on right now," Vasily Podkolzin said. "They did a good job. They played simply because of how they scored their goals, so there's not much to say here."

The Oilers will be back in action on Wednesday to begin a back-to-back with the first leg at Capital One Arena against the Washington Capitals.

"It's just another game, so we've got to be ready to play against Washington," Podkolzin added. "Not much to say, but we'd better figure it out as soon as possible."

BUFFALO BREAKS THROUGH FIRST

The Sabres drew first blood late in the opening frame despite a strong start for the Oilers before getting careless with their sticks in the opening 20 minutes.

"I thought we actually came out with a pretty good start the first few shifts and built a little bit of momentum, but then it was just a case of not executing," defenceman Brett Kulak said. "We ran into a pretty good goalie over there. He's playing well, and we're just not really playing to the level we want to get to."

Mattias Ekholm took the first of two high-sticking penalties for Edmonton in the first period just under seven minutes in at the blueline against Alex Tuch, putting the two special teams outfits of the Sabres and Oilers that've been going in separate directions in recent games against one another early on.

Buffalo had been 1-for-19 with the man advantage in their previous nine games, while Edmonton's penalty kill has been steadily improving over their last five contests by going 14-for-15 after allowing PPGs in their previous three games against Dallas, St. Louis and Chicago, moving them into the NHL's top-10 for overall penalty-kill percentage in the ninth spot (82.7 percent).

Stuart Skinner turned aside Alex Tuch's hard drive on the Sabres' power play, before the Oilers were stamped out by their league-leading penalty kill (89.5 percent) after Josh Doan set a pick at the Buffalo blueline on Andrew Mangiapane while trying to stop a quick Edmonton regroup past the midway mark.

Putting pucks on goaltender Colten Ellis, the Oilers tried forcing rebounds on two different shot-passes off the rushes from Adam Henrique and Leon Draisaitl that narrowly avoided the outstretched sticks of both Matt Savoie and Jack Roslovic that would've easily led to open-net finishes for the two forwards.

In the final two minutes of the opening period, Connor McDavid didn't complain and went straight to the box after his attempted stick lift made for some captain-on-captain crime when it caught Rasmus Dahlin up high to produce another Sabres' power play before the intermission.

On the ensuing man advantage, rookie Noah Ostlund made a great move by pulling the puck from the left of Edmonton's net off a low feed from forward Isak Rosen in front on one smooth sequence to hit it past Skinner's right pad, giving the Sabres a 1-0 lead heading into the first intermission.

SABRES SLASH & GRAB THE LEAD

After the Oilers tied the game in the first five minutes of the middle frame on Jack Roslovic's already seventh goal of the season, the Sabres answered back with two goals in a 1:02 span a few minutes later before things got fiery after the final buzzer sounded at the end of the period.

Skinner made two well-read saves on Beck Malenstyn in the first few minutes when the Buffalo forward, who'd been goalless this season through 17 appearances, fought hard in the slot to give himself a good look and a second follow-up opportunity that needed the Oilers netminder to be sharp to react.

McDavid made a great defensive stick lift against Peyton Krebs on a partial breakaway a minute later before the Oilers tied things up at 4:29 of the second period, watching Jack Roslovic strike back with the quick finish off Leon Draisaitl's backhand dish to keep the good times rolling for the 28-year-old.

Roslovic wasted no time delivering Draisaitl's dish into the top shelf past netminder Colten Ellis to extend his point streak to five games, recording goals in back-to-back games and in four of his last five games.

"We've been very fortunate to have Jack on our team, and he's been providing a lot and pushing the pace, being able just to carry the puck into the zone," Knoblauch said. "Obviously, the goals, he's had many of those. He's been a nice addition. We'd like to get some more contributions from throughout our lineup, but Jack has been a good player for us, obviously."

Draisaitl's primary assist gave the German points in three straight (3G, 3A), and Andrew Mangiapane also collected a helper for his 250th career NHL point (127G, 123A).

The Sabres started showing urgency after the Oilers tied things up 1-1, stacking shifts of offensive-zone possession on top of one another and getting traffic in front of Skinner to eventually take a 3-1 lead in quick succession off goals from Bowen Byram and Beck Malenstyn.

Buffalo made the most of a deflected puck from McDavid in his own defensive zone by turning the broken play into a turnaround wrist shot for Byram in the right circle that he placed perfectly into the top shelf at the near post past Skinner to lift the Sabres back into a lead at 8:41 of the second period.

Just 1:02 later, it was Malenstyn putting the deflection on Dahlin's shot from the point to direct it into the back of the net for his first goal in 56 games (18 this season), which put the Sabres up by a pair with over half the middle frame still to play.

"We're all feeling that," Kulak said. "Like you said, it's been spurts of where we're playing how we want to play, and it's just not enough. We got to put in full 60-minute efforts, and we're just going to keep working away at it right now. Everyone's got to find some chemistry with their linemates and up it a little bit."

It was a painful look for defenceman Jake Walman when he took a missed follow-through from Tage Thompson at the blueline, which sent him to the ice to prompt a whistle before Head Athletic Therapist T.D. Forss came out with the towel to help deal with some of the blood that came from the incident.

Walman would be no worse for wear and returned to the game after only missing a shift, but the Sabres were starting to take liberties on guys like McDavid, who was drilled into the boards from behind by Peyton Krebs at the benches to give the Oilers another reason to raise their level over the last 10 minutes.

Edmonton's bottom-six forwards tried leading the charge over a handful of good shifts during a solid pushback before the intermission, trying to generate more scoring opportunities against Sabres netminder Colten Ellis, who was making only his fourth career NHL start on Monday night.

A late slap shot from Darnell Nurse after the buzzer sounded led to a fiery melee around the Buffalo net, where Vasily Podkolzin no doubt remembered Krebs' earlier hit on McDavid and wound up dropping the gloves with him after the referee told the linesman to let them go.

"Again, not much to say there, but no one can play against our leaders like that," Podkolzin said. "So our team will protect them for sure."

THE BLADE CUTS DEEP

The Sabres just needed to stay patient as more turnovers committed by the Oilers came their way.

Skinner made three terrific stops early in the third period after Edmonton coughed up pucks on each occasion, with none bigger than on Alex Tuch after he picked it off just outside the blueline before going wide and forcing the shot-stopper into a crucial pad save to keep the deficit at two.

But the Sabres just had to remain steady and wait for their chances, with the Oilers only having one high-danger five-on-five chance through 40 minutes on Monday and looking like they wouldn't have the third-period response that we've grown accustomed to this season before Buffalo added another.

Ostlund had all the time he needed circling the Oilers' net with just under seven minutes gone in the final frame, seeing all five defenders stuck between the face-off dots and below the top of the circles and firing his second goal of the game through traffic for his first-ever multi-goal game in the NHL.

Coach Knoblauch said that the story of his team's defending was a little different tonight, mentioning that their difficulties came inside their zone and around Skinner's crease, rather than off the rush, where odd-man rushes have given them trouble this season.

"Usually, we've been giving up a lot of chances off the rush. Tonight, that wasn't the case," he said. "I thought we did a pretty good job on that. In the defensive zone, they had us running around, whether we were getting beat to the net or just not being aggressive enough, being so tight in the middle and just letting them walk around when we have to be a little more assertive there.

"Unfortunately, I'm not seeing a pattern."

The Oilers pulled Skinner for the extra attacker with 4:17 to go in regulation, but after they barely let the Sabres touch the puck for nearly two minutes, a turnover by McDavid down low turned into a full-ice shot from Tage Thompson into the empty net to seal the 5-1 victory for the hosts.

The Oilers fell to 4-7-2 on the road this season with plenty of work to do heading to Washington for a meeting with the Capitals on Wednesday.

"We're always disappointed after any loss, and we've always got expectations that we can be better," Knoblauch said. "We want to work on things, like if it's our breakout or our o-zone play. There are a lot of things that we can get better at to make our team harder to play against. Right now, I think we have a lot to clean up."