‘A huge point’ | Shootout win adds to Sabres’ productive night in standings

Jack Quinn’s shootout move shouldn’t surprise anyone at this point, but it continues to work. The Buffalo Sabres winger skates up the right side, veers into the slot and beats the goalie high or low on the blocker side.

“Just decide when I get in, see what the goalie’s giving me,” Quinn said.

“He still gets our goalies (in practice),” added Alex Tuch, “and they’ve seen it about 100 times.”

The move beat Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Joseph Woll for the shootout winner in a 3-2 Sabres victory on Saturday at KeyBank Center. Quinn improved to 3-for-4 this season and 8-for-13 in his shootout career, and Tuch followed his act by scoring in the third round to end it.

Buffalo’s Alex Lyon is something of a shootout savant, himself. He turned aside William Nylander and Easton Cowan to improve to .824 (14 stops on 17 attempts) in his shootout career, 10th best all-time among goalies who've faced 10-plus shootout bids. Further, Lyon has now won 16 of his last 18 outings.

Saturday’s game reached overtime thanks in part to Quinn’s earlier work; on a second-period power play, with the Sabres trailing 2-1, he buried a short-side one-timer for his career-best 16th goal of the season. But the play was all about forward Noah Ostlund, who set Quinn up with a spin-around backhand pass from the net front.

“Just an all-world pass from him, and I kind of had an open net there,” Quinn said. “I feel like he’s a pretty crafty player, so always expecting him to find you out there.”

Some earlier Sabres mistakes had led to the Toronto goals, but Buffalo tightened up from there, allowing just two shots in the third period and 18 total. And after failing to bury a series of quality scoring chances – some 2-on-1 rushes, especially – the Sabres found themselves in a similar situation to Thursday’s loss against Washington: tied late in regulation, at a time of year when every point matters.

In that game, the Sabres allowed a late goal on a defensive breakdown and walked away empty handed. In this one, they made sure to survive the final minutes, controlled the puck for much of overtime and prevailed in the shootout. As a result, Buffalo still hasn’t lost consecutive games in regulation since early December.

“It tells you a lot about our maturity, knowing that we gave [Washington] a point, and we took a point away from ourselves with how we played in that last situation,” said coach Lindy Ruff. “We’re a better defending team than that, we’ve played better than that all year.”

“I think we were a little sour the last 48 hours, and that’s a good sign,” added Lyon.

A productive night on the out-of-town scoreboard saw Tampa Bay and Montreal lose in regulation, Detroit in overtime. So, Buffalo leads the Atlantic Division by four points with 15 games remaining.

“To get the extra point at this time of year when teams around you are losing, it’s a huge point,” Ruff said.

Here’s more from the win.

Metsa shines

Top-pair defenseman Mattias Samuelsson missed the game for maintenance reasons, opening the door for Zach Metsa to re-enter the lineup. Playing mostly with Rasmus Dahlin, Metsa skated a career-high 15:32, and Buffalo outshot Toronto 12-4 in those minutes (Natural Stat Trick).

The 27-year-old rookie had been a healthy scratch the previous three games as the Sabres incorporated trade pickups Luke Schenn (who dropped the gloves Saturday) and Logan Stanley on the back end. In his 34th NHL game, Metsa had one of his best nights at this level, making calm puck touches in the defensive zone and creating a few scoring chances with his skating at the other end.

“He deserves to be in the lineup for how well he’s played,” Ruff said. “I thought tonight he played well again. He handled the puck well, was in on some offense for us, read the game really well and did a heck of a job for us.”

“I think at this point," added Metsa, "I have the confidence in myself and know the kind of reads I need to make to help the team, and that’s really what I’m just trying to do every night. And I feel really good about it now.”

Ostlund and Co.

The rookie Ostlund was making plays all night. From smooth breakouts to cross-ice passes to that play on Quinn’s goal, his 15th assist of the season, he showed some serious skill and poise in his 15:46 of ice time.

“He’s got great hockey sense,” Ruff said. “He makes a lot of good plays under duress for a first-year guy. And he has confidence – when he’s in his own end, he’s got the confidence to make the small play that tells you that the pressure of the game isn’t getting to him, that he’s not going to just throw it somewhere. Nine times out of 10, he’s making the right play.”

He, Josh Norris and Josh Doan are a handful for opponents when they’re playing with speed, as they did Saturday. During that line’s ice time, the Sabres led 14-4 in shot attempts and 7-2 in scoring chances (Natural Stat Trick).

Postgame sound

Up next

The Sabres head west for a four-game trip, beginning Tuesday at 10 p.m. EDT against the Vegas Golden Knights. MSG’s pregame coverage starts at 9:30.