Early penalties set tone for Sabres’ loss to Red Wings

An early deficit proved too much to overcome for the Buffalo Sabres, who lost 5-2 to the Detroit Red Wings on Friday at KeyBank Center.

The Sabres have now lost three straight games – although two were in overtime – for the first time since their December turnaround. That said, they still have a two-point edge over Tampa Bay for the Atlantic Division lead, thanks to their mostly dominant play for the last three-and-a-half months.

“I’ve been saying it all year, we’re going to hit adversity at some point,” said goaltender Alex Lyon, who made 15 saves on 19 shots in the loss. “We’ve had a long, sustained stretch of really excellent play, and now we’re hitting a little bit of adversity.

“… The reality of it is, we’re still in a good position, and we just need to nip it in the bud right now and move forward.”

Friday’s adversity came in the form of penalties, and they started just a few minutes into the game. An offensive-zone high stick led to an Alex DeBrincat power-play goal, and an interference call led to another for Lucas Raymond. Marco Kasper also scored at even strength later in the period, so Buffalo faced its first three-goal deficit since before the Olympic break.

“We can’t start the game with taking two penalties like we did,” coach Lindy Ruff said. “That just fueled their energy, got their special teams going. They’ve got a dangerous power play, and they took advantage of it.”

Those were Detroit’s only two power-play goals, but Buffalo faced six shorthanded situations, its second most in a game this season and most since mid-October. And eight of the Sabres’ 14 penalty minutes were high-sticking infractions – the type that will drive any coach crazy.

“Those are penalties that we have to stay away from,” Ruff continued. “When you do that, you’re going to pay a price, and they made us pay a price for the penalties we took.”

Buffalo has allowed seven first-period goals in the last four games, including the first goal in three of them. The Sabres have grown accustomed to playing from ahead; chasing games, as the last few have shown, means loosening their defensive structure and taking more risks for offense, while their opponent does the opposite.

The Sabres did respond with a great second-period push against Detroit. Five minutes in, Peyton Krebs held onto a puck and fed Tage Thompson for a one-timer goal, his 37th of the season. That reignited the team and the crowd, and a flurry of pressure and chances followed, but Red Wings goalie John Gibson stood tall with 11 saves in the period.

“I honestly thought that we were gonna come back,” said captain Rasmus Dahlin. “That’s the mentality we have in this group, and we’ve just got to continue to have it.”

Buffalo killed off a high-sticking double minor late in the third, only to see Detroit’s Jacob Bernard-Docker extend the lead to 4-1 moments later. Dahlin responded with his 16th goal with 3:35 remaining, but then Patrick Kane iced the game with an empty netter.

The Sabres don’t intend to dwell on this loss, nor do they have time to – they’re back in action Saturday evening against the Seattle Kraken, who like the Red Wings are battling for a wild card spot and sure to come out strong. And how Buffalo responds to this rough patch should be pretty clear, pretty quickly, Ruff feels.

“I think for me, it’s gonna boil down to how we come out in that first period tomorrow night,” the coach said.

“Tomorrow is gonna show what type of team we are,” echoed Dahlin. “We have to show to ourselves that we’ve got to dig ourselves out of this. This is unacceptable.”

Ostlund out, Pearson in

Forward Noah Ostlund missed the game with an upper-body injury. He’s considered day to day, Ruff said.

That created an opening for Tanner Pearson to play his second game since the deadline trade. The veteran winger skated 5:43 with one hit and his first assist as a Sabre – the primary helper on Dahlin’s goal.

Postgame sound

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