Sabres win in Detroit on Scandella's OT buzzer beater

DETROIT -Johan Larsson summed it up best, standing in the visiting dressing room at Little Caesars Arena: "It's a fine line," he said, "between winning and losing." Exactly how fine that line was against the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday night, he wasn't sure.
Larsson began his drive as the final seconds dwindled off the clock in overtime, drew two defenders as he approached the net and made a quick pass back to Marco Scandella, who rifled a shot past Jimmy Howard with 0.2 seconds remaining to clinch a 3-2 win for the Buffalo Sabres.
Surely it took an acute sense of timing on Larsson's behalf to pull off the buzzer beater. Right?

"No," he said, smiling. "No idea. I heard it was pretty close."

In any event, the victory was a show of resiliency for the Sabres, who gave up the game-tying goal to Detroit's Justin Abdelkader with 1:25 remaining in regulation. The goal came with the Red Wings on a 6-on-4 advantage, with Howard pulled and Larsson serving a minor penalty for tripping.
It was fitting, then, that it was Larsson who came through with the late-game heroics.
"We didn't throw in the towel," Scandella said. "We didn't give up. It just showed the kind of game we played tonight. We played 60 minutes. We played a simple game, but a hard game and everyone pulled on the rope."
Scandella might not have had the chance to win the game had it not been for the effort in net from Robin Lehner, who turned away 35 shots in his return after sitting out of Monday's game to nurse a lower-body injury.
Lehner saved some of his best work for overtime, including a point-blank stop of a Trevor Daley attempt on a 2-on-1 rush:

"He was very comfortable in there tonight," Sabres coach Phil Housley said. "Pretty square to the puck, not a lot of wasted motion, just pretty tight. But we did a pretty good job I thought to might trying to take away the middle of the ice."
The Sabres took an early lead thanks to a goal from Rasmus Ristolainen, whose shot from the point deflected in off the body of a defender just 3:39 into the contest. It was the beginning of a complete effort from the defenseman, who also tallied an assist, five shot attempts and four blocks in 28 minutes.

The one lull in Buffalo's game came early in the second period, which found the team struggling to get out of its own zone. Jonathan Ericsson scored on a shot from the point for Detroit to tie the game 3:42 into the period.
Even then, the Sabres responded. Scandella dumped a puck into the offensive zone to put them on the forecheck later in the period, leading to a hooking call drawn by Jason Pominville in front of the Detroit net. Pominville manned the net-front on the ensuing power play while Evander Kane scored a wrap-around goal.

"They made a push and for a few minutes there we were kind of hanging on," Scandella said. "But we came back and started getting pucks deep on them and going to our game again."
Given the recent history between the Sabres and Red Wings, it was fitting that the game came down to the final second. Eight of the past nine contests played between the two teams entering this season had been decided by one goal.
Their first matchup this season was a 1-0 Sabres win; the second had been a one-goal game until the last five minutes of regulation. The one thing missing from those two games was overtime, and while it may have come with too many chances for Housley's liking, he understood the entertainment value it brought to the game on Thursday.
"That overtime was pretty interesting, to say the least," he said.

What is interference?

Kane's goal was challenged for goalie interference, inciting a lengthy review to check whether or not Pominville had impeded Howard's ability make a save. Housley and Lehner both had the impression that the goal would stand, but Kane said he was less certain given..
"I had a goal disallowed in Montreal where [Sam Reinhart] was about two feet outside the crease and they disallowed it," Kane said. "I don't know. I don't think anybody does. I think it's more of, if you're the team who gets scored against you just call it and hope somebody makes a mistake."

Throwback Thursday

According to Elias Sports Bureau, Scandella joined Los Angeles' Tyler Toffoli as the only players to score at the 4:59 mark in overtime this season. You might remember the last time a Sabre accomplished the feat:

Up next

The Sabres will conclude their road trip against the Washington Capitals on Saturday night. Coverage on MSG-B begins at 6:30 p.m. with the GMC Game Night Pregame Show, or you can listen live on WGR 550. Puck drop is scheduled for 7.
The team returns home on Sunday for a 5 p.m. matchup against the Boston Bruins. Family Packs - which include four 300-level tickets, four hot dogs, four popcorns and four sodas - are available and can be found here.