Sabres can’t overcome another 2-goal deficit, lose to Flyers

Goalie’d early and shut down late, the Buffalo Sabres lost 3-1 to the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday at KeyBank Center.

Flyers goalie Dan Vladar survived a first-period flurry and finished with 26 saves to drop the Sabres to .500 (4-4-2) on the season.

“I don’t think we pressured them enough, we didn’t get enough pucks behind them, we didn’t have enough bodies in front of the net making it tough on Vladar,” said Sabres forward Jason Zucker, who scored in his season debut. “He’s a great goalie, and if he sees every puck, he’s gonna make every save. And I think we just made it easy on him.”

The Sabres fell behind 2-0 despite carrying play in the opening 20. Vladar stopped all 16 shots, including four on a promising early power play, before late-period goals from Cole Knuble and Trevor Zegras put Buffalo in another hole.

That’s now nine games (of 10) in which the Sabres have faced a multi-goal deficit. They’ve fought back to earn eight total points in those nine games, but chasing games isn’t sustainable for any team.

“If we find the back of the net, we’d be leading,” coach Lindy Ruff said. “The goalie, he made a couple big saves, but we still have to find the back of the net.”

Zach Benson and Jack Quinn both hit the post/crossbar behind Vladar early in the second period – close calls, but ultimately just misses, which Ruff identified as another big issue. The Sabres missed the net 12 times Wednesday and have 148 total misses this season, 10th most in the league.

To Zucker’s point, it took a body in the crease to finally beat Vladar. Moments before the second intermission, after Buffalo had killed off a Flyers 5-on-3 and gotten its own power play, Quinn fired a backdoor pass off Zucker’s leg to get the Sabres within one.

Any momentum from that goal was short lived, however, because Knuble scored again three minutes into the third period, banking a shot off goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen’s skate and putting the Flyers back up by two.

For all their early chances, the Sabres managed just 12 total shots over the final 40 minutes, trying (unsuccessfully) for fancier plays against a stout Flyers defense. Per Stathletes, Philadelphia led the game in both scoring chances (28 to 23) and expected goals (3.5 to 3.3).

“They did a good job. I’m just going to tell you, they checked hard,” Ruff said. “They did the same thing to Colorado (on Monday). They made you dump it in, they checked hard, they were on the right side (of the puck), they blocked a lot of shots.”

Review rules nearly cost Sabres

The Sabres had to kill off 1:13 of 5-on-3 because of a strange rule. Owen Power was whistled for high sticking with Buffalo shorthanded, but it was actually Philadelphia’s Trevor Zegras who high-sticked teammate Matvei Michkov.

Only double-minor or major penalties can be challenged/reviewed, and Power’s was just a minor. The officials conferred but couldn’t correct their mistake as boos rained down from the crowd.

“The official came over and admitted he made a mistake,” Ruff said. “… I said, ‘If you’re going to make that call, you’ve got to be right.’ So, it was a tough call for us at that time of the game.”

Three blocks by Louis Crevier and another by Beck Malenstyn got Buffalo through the kill, then Zucker narrowed the deficit to 2-1 shortly after. But that was as close as the Sabres got to a comeback.

“It was too bad we couldn’t capitalize off that momentum that [the penalty killers] built for us,” said Power, who knew he hadn’t high-sticked Michkov and was animated in the penalty box.

Sammy drops the gloves

Late in the third, Philadelphia’s Hunter McDonald crushed Ryan McLeod with an open-ice hit. Mattias Samuelsson was quick to defend McLeod and fought the rookie defenseman – Samuelsson’s first career bout.

“Awesome. He’s turned into an awesome teammate,” Ruff said of his alternate captain. “Guy that jumped right in for his teammate when he thought he got hit a little bit illegally. He did the right thing.”

Postgame sound

Up next

The Sabres hit the road again for a four-game trip, which begins 7 p.m. Saturday at Washington. MSG’s pregame coverage starts at 6:30.