At the Horn | Sabres 5 - Flyers 4

With 15,000 of his bobbleheads scattered throughout the KeyBank Center stands, Alex Tuch scored a goal and an assist to lead the Buffalo Sabres to a 4-3 win in their season finale against the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday.

Tuch also recorded three blocked shots to reach 113 on the season, breaking Mathieu Dandenault’s record for NHL forwards (blocked shots have been tracked since 2005-06).

Tuch’s goal was his 36th of the season, matching his career high. His assist was his NHL-leading ninth shorthanded point of the season, tied with Michael Peca for the third-highest total in Sabres history.

The Sabres handed out Tuch bobbleheads as a result of an online vote for Fan Appreciation Night. He was also recognized during the first period as the winner of the fan-voted Rick Martin Memorial Award, given to a player who embodies “on-ice excellence, resiliency, and dedication to the community.”

The victory was the 900th regular-season win for Sabres coach Lindy Ruff, who joined Scotty Bowman, Joel Quenneville, Paul Maurice, and Barry Trotz as the fifth NHL coach to hit the milestone.

Ryan McLeod (1+2), Jack Quinn (1+2), and JJ Peterka (1+2) joined Tuch with multi-point games for the Sabres while Peyton Krebs added a shorthanded goal. James Reimer made 22 saves for the win.

Matvei Michkov scored two goals for the Flyers. Tyson Foerster and Bobby Brink also added goals while Aleksei Kolosov made 27 saves.

HOW IT HAPPENED

First Period

The Sabres stormed out to a 3-1 lead while outshooting the Flyers 13-4 during the opening period.

Tuch buried a backdoor feed from Jason Zucker to open the scoring 4:35 into the contest. Less than 10 minutes later, on Buffalo’s first penalty kill of the night, Tuch poked a puck free into the neutral zone to set Peyton Krebs loose for a breakaway goal.

Matvei Michkov scored Philadelphia’s first goal on that same power play, but Buffalo responded again with a 2-on-1 goal from Ryan McLeod to Quinn.

Second Period

Peterka added to the Buffalo lead just 1:24 into the period, burying a feed from McLeod on a 2-on-1 rush. McLeod started the play in the defensive zone by banking pass to himself off the boards as he sped past Flyers forward Travis Konecny.

Michkov answered with his second goal of the game to cut the Buffalo lead to 4-2.

Third Period

Foerster deflected a pass from Travis Konecny to bring the Flyers within one goal 15 seconds into the period.

After a coach’s challenge for goaltender interference took Peterka’s second goal of the night off the board, Buffalo successfully killed a penalty against Tuch to preserve the one-goal lead. McLeod scored an empty-net goal to give the Sabres extra cushion with 48 seconds remaining.

Brink scored Philadelphia’s final goal with 19 seconds on the clock.

GAME HIGHLIGHTS

PHOTO GALLERIES

POSTGAME SOUND

UP NEXT

The Sabres players will hold end-of-season interviews with the media on Friday and Saturday. Ruff will have a season-ending press conference alongside general manager Kevyn Adams at 4:30 p.m.

Stay tuned to Sabres.com for full coverage of both days.