Sabres leave a point on the table in OT loss to Blackhawks

CHICAGO – The Buffalo Sabres got one point Thursday at United Center, losing 3-2 to the Chicago Blackhawks in overtime. But they felt robbed of a chance at a second point.

Owen Power was pursuing his man, Ryan Donato, in the defensive zone, when Chicago’s Anton Frondell backed into Power and knocked the Buffalo defenseman down. By the time Power was back on his skates, Donato had skated to the high slot and shot the overtime winner.

“It’s a penalty in any league. It’s a call you’ve got to get. It’s a call that has to be made,” coach Lindy Ruff said. “Guy turns and sticks his ass out and dumps our guy. Make the call.”

“Obviously, I think that should probably be a penalty,” added Power, who protested to the officials to no avail. “Or at least take both of us.”

Buffalo (8-7-4) entered the night prioritizing defense after Wednesday’s 8-3 loss to the Lightning. On that front, when not being interfered with, the Sabres mostly got what they were looking for. Stathletes credited Chicago with four rush scoring chances and three odd-man rushes in the game. Tampa Bay, for comparison, had 10 and seven.

When the Blackhawks did create quality looks, Alex Lyon – making his season debut – came up with some timely saves. Chicago’s two regulation goals both came from Frank Nazar: an uncovered backdoor play on the power play and a net-front tip.

“We came into tonight making sure that we weren’t giving up many rush chances and we were on the right side of pucks. I thought we did that,” Tage Thompson said. “… Sucks the result being what it was, but definitely, in my opinion, a better response than the last game.”

Ruff balanced his defensive pairs by separating Power and Olen Zellweger – Power played with Conor Timmins, Zellweger with Louis Crevier – which helped to dial back the all-out offensive attacks seen Wednesday.

Hawks forward Andrew Mangiapane did get behind Buffalo’s top pair for a breakaway with 1:38 remaining in regulation, and Rasmus Dahlin had to hook him to disrupt his shot. That set up a crucial penalty kill that the Sabres survived to secure their one point.

With their defensive focus, however, the offense never fully got in rhythm. Power and Thompson sniped first-period shots past goalie Spencer Knight for their 12th and third goals of the season, respectively, but from there, dangerous scoring chances were few and far between. Buffalo managed just five shots in the third period, which it entered with a 2-1 lead, and none in overtime.

Winless in their last three games (0-2-1), the Sabres find themselves four points behind the second Eastern Conference wild-card spot. It’s still less than a quarter of the way through the season, but Buffalo can’t wait around to find its stride in this highly competitive Atlantic Division.

“We’re just going to focus one game at a time,” Thompson said. “Same kind of mentality we had last year when we started to get hot. I don’t think we’re looking to go on a miracle run like we did last year; I think we’re looking to be more consistent.”

“Getting the point is okay,” Ruff said, “but we’ve got to start winning games.”

Lyon’s return

A preseason upper-body injury, then an October setback, delayed Lyon’s season debut until Nov. 12. His biggest save in the loss came with five seconds remaining in regulation, when he gloved Connor Bedard’s dangerous power-play wrister to force OT.

“(Felt) good. Pretty comfortable,” the 33-year-old goalie said. “I just put a lot of work here in the last couple weeks, so felt nice that it kind of paid off. It’s kind of a perfect storm when you don’t win and you feel good – it’s still a bad feeling. Just have to keep grinding.”

Lyon went 20-10-4 with a .907 save percentage last season, and his steadiness in net often seems to have a calming effect on the rest of the team.

“We all felt for Lyno,” Thompson said. “It’s nice to see him back in the cage there. He’s such a competitor. He’s a guy that wants to be in the pipes and wants to be a difference maker. And he was. He held us in the game for a long time there.”

Quinn’s strong playmaking

Sabres.com recently featured Quinn’s offseason strength training and how it’s powered his hot start this season. That was on display with his two first-period assists in Chicago.

• ‘Full throttle’ | Inside Jack Quinn’s game-changing offseason

First, Quinn raced into the offensive zone, got knocked down by defenseman Wyatt Kaiser but maintained puck possession to help set Power's goal up.

Later in the period, on the power play, Quinn was pinned against the half wall by big Jordan Greenway, with Ian Cole in support, but he still managed to poke a pass out to the open Thompson for a primary helper.

In previous years, both sequences might’ve resulted in turnovers. This year, they both produced Sabres goals and Quinn assists. The winger is up to 19 points (9+10), and he also had a pair of defensive steals in overtime before the Donato winner.

Postgame sound

Up next

The Sabres head to Dallas for Saturday’s 8 p.m. EST matchup with the Stars. MSG’s pregame coverage begins at 7:30.