At The Final Horn: Islanders 3 - Sabres 4 (SO)

Michael Houser made 45 saves plus three more in the shootout as the Buffalo Sabres defeated the New York Islanders 4-3 on Tuesday at KeyBank Center.
Houser has now won back-to-back games for the first two victories of his NHL career.
Anders Bjork scored twice and potted the deciding goal in the shootout for the Sabres as Buffalo erased a 3-1 deficit to win. Cody Eakin also scored for Buffalo.
Anthony Beauvillier, Ryan Pulock and Cal Clutterbuck scored for the Islanders. Ilya Sorokin made 28 saves.
Tuesday's win marks the first time that Buffalo has won consecutive games after being down by at least two goals since Nov. 17 and 19, 2018.

What happened

The Sabres opened the scoring when Eakin finished a backhand feed from Jeff Skinner 4:01 into the game.
However, the Islanders quickly tied things up when Beauvillier scored on a one-timer 26 seconds later.
Houser stopped 20 of the 21 shots he faced in the first period.
At the 3:44 mark of the second period, Pulock's shot through traffic made its way past Houser and then at 9:16, Clutterbuck scored on a shorthanded breakaway to make it 3-1.
The Sabres cut the deficit to one with 2:23 left in the second when Bjork deflected in a Colin Miller slap shot.
Bjork tied thing sup with 9:04 left in the third when his shot from the right faceoff dot fooled Sorokin glove side.
Houser made his best stop of the night when he stopped Casey Cizikas on a breakaway with 4:30 left in the third.

In the shootout, Houser stopped Jordan Eberle, Beauvillier and Oliver Wahlstrom. Bjork scored what turned out to be the winner in the top of the second round.

Roll the highlight film

Here's Bjork's game-tying goal:

Worth mentioning

-Miller returned to the lineup and picked up an assist after sitting out the past four games. He replaced Will Borgen on a pair with Jacob Bryson.
-Before the game, the Sabres signed goaltender Stefanos Lakkos to a one-year contract. He served as the backup on Monday and Tuesday. He had signed a PTO prior to Monday's game.
Lakkos posted a 7-2-2 record with a .914 save percentage and 2.15 goals-against average this season for the Fort Wayne Komets prior to joining the Rochester Americans (AHL), where he's appeared in seven games.
-Buffalo finish the home portion of the 2020-21 schedule with a record of 8-16-4 at KeyBank Center.

Coming up

The Sabres will close out the series with a two-game series against the Pittsburgh. The penultimate game of the season will take place Thursday night at PPG Paints Arena. Faceoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. on MSG and WGR 550.