Alex Lyon made 27 saves for his second shutout of the season and his franchise record tying ninth straight win, a 5-0 victory for the Buffalo Sabres over the New York Islanders at UBS Arena on Saturday.
Lyon’s nine consecutive wins tie the Sabres franchise record set by Gerry Desjardins in December of 1976. His streak began with an overtime victory in Edmonton on Dec. 9, which doubled as the start of the Sabres’ 10-game team winning streak.
Lyon missed three weeks between wins Nos. 7 and 8 of his streak due to an upper-body injury he sustained late in a victory over St. Louis on Dec. 29. He didn’t miss a beat, making 31 saves in his return to the lineup in Nashville on Tuesday.
The veteran goaltender made several key stops with the Sabres nursing a 1-0 lead in the second period against New York, including a blocker save on a shorthanded breakaway for Islanders leading scorer Mathew Barzal and, shortly after, another breakaway save on Max Shabanov.
Jason Zucker scored a pair of goals – one each in the opening minutes of the second and third periods – while Tage Thompson, Rasmus Dahlin and Alex Tuch also added goals. Ryan McLeod and Mattias Samuelsson had two assists each.
The win propelled the Sabres, for the time being, into third place in the Atlantic Division by virtue of a tiebreaker with the Canadiens, who play in Boston on Saturday night.
