5 takeaways | Skinner, Asplund score late to fuel comeback win

Kyle Okposo took a trip to the Philadelphia net to fetch the puck for Arttu Ruotsalainen after the 23-year-old rookie scored his first NHL goal. His immediate thought?
"Get it out of there as quick as possible," Okposo said with a grin. "I couldn't get it out of there. I know that obviously as a goalie you want to get back in your net, so I was just trying to get it out of there as quick as I could and be as respectful as I could."
OK - maybe not the most sentimental response. But the only player over the age of 30 to wear a Sabres uniform Sunday had plenty of thoughts regarding his growing cast of young teammates after they strung together a come-from-behind, 5-3 win over the Flyers.

Facing a desperate Philadelphia team seeking to claw its way back into the playoff picture, Buffalo erased a 2-0 deficit on goals from Sam Reinhart and Ruotsalainen during the second period. Jeff Skinner and Rasmus Asplund scored goals just 25 seconds apart to turn a 3-2 deficit into a 4-3 lead late in the third.
Suddenly, comebacks are beginning to feel like a habit in Buffalo.
"I think that's been something that has been missing a little bit over the years, knowing that if you go into a game, just having that feeling that you're going to win every single game that you play," Okposo said. "And (if) you don't win, you know that you're going to play the right way and then you're going to continue to build off that and you're going to win the next game.
"And I don't think we're quite there yet to where we have that complete confidence, but we will get there. It's been a fun process; we're going to continue to build and mature as a team. We have a lot of good tests coming up."
Here are five takeaways from the win.

1. So, about these comebacks …

Let's start with a quick refresher. Tage Thompson notched a game-tying goal with 3.6 seconds remaining in an overtime loss to the Rangers on April 1. In a rematch two nights later, Victor Olofsson scored the tying goal with 3:41 to play and the Sabres won in a shootout.
That was their first win of the season when trailing after two periods.
Since then, the Sabres erased second-period deficits in two games against the Devils and fell one goal short of a comeback in a loss to Washington. The results have not always followed - only one of those three games ended in a win - but a previously absent belief has been evident of late.
"We've had a much better belief system progressively the last couple weeks and it's getting stronger," interim head coach Don Granato said. "You can feel that … up and down the bench. More confident speak, less emotional speak."
Reinhart and Ruotsalainen scored just 46 seconds apart early during the second period to erase the 2-0 lead that the Flyers had built over the first 20 minutes. Reinhart's goal was the product of a nifty feed from Skinner off an offensive-zone faceoff. Ruotsalainen showed off the one-time shot Sabres fans might see more of moving forward.
The Flyers responded, however, with a go-ahead goal from Shayne Gostisbehere at 3:47 of the third and managed to control the play for the better part of the period. It was a shift from the line of Okposo, Ruotsalainen and Dylan Cozens that ended with a Claude Giroux icing and set the comeback in motion.
Skinner pounced on a loose puck in the crease seconds into the following shift. One shift later, Asplund won a battle in the corner, sent the puck high and dashed across the net to bury the rebound of a Jacob Bryson shot from the point. Casey Mittelstadt scored into an empty net to seal the win.

"That was a desperate hockey team over there and they need the points," Okposo said. "We knew that they were going to come out hard and they did. We could've folded when it was 2-0, and we didn't. So we're learning how to win games different ways. You need to do that to become a good team and we're starting to take steps."

2. The 23-and-younger club

The Sabres had eight players aged 23 or younger in the lineup Sunday, including:
• Rasmus Dahlin, who had a four-game point streak snapped but skated a 24:54 on a pair with 21-year-old partner Henri Jokiharju.
• Jacob Bryson, who made his NHL debut in February and has been trusted with top-pair minutes playing alongside Rasmus Ristolainen. He had two assists.
• The trio of Asplund, Mittelstadt, and Thompson - all of whom were unable to carve out an everyday spot in the lineup early this season. At least one of the three has scored in each of Buffalo's past six games.
• Ruotsalainen, who skated alongside 19-year-old Dylan Cozens in the latter's return from injury. Cozens assisted on Ruotsalainen's goal and continued to show an edge during a third-period scrum behind the Flyers net.
Okposo noted the way the young players have taken ownership of their opportunities and gave special mention to Mittelstadt, who has seized a role at center with Jack Eichel out due to an injury and Eric Staal having departed via trade.

"I have definitely mentioned that to him a couple times, that he's doing the right things and he's continuing to mature and he's continuing to gain respect from our players, from players around the league," Okposo said of Mittelstadt.
"But this is the time to really step on the gas. It's not time to say, 'Oh, I'm having a pretty good year' and get comfortable. You want to step on the gas, you want to play, you want to push to get better, push to get wins, push for him to get points. I know he's going to continue to do that."

3. A dream come true for Ruotsalainen

Ruotsalainen admitted to some early nerves during his NHL debut against the Capitals on Friday but felt he benefitted from the experience of playing a veteran, Stanley Cup-caliber opponent. Granato came away from that game impressed with the rookie's readiness.
Sunday marked a first glance for what fans back in Finland and, more recently, in Rochester have come to expect from Ruotsalainen. He fired a one-time shot from the right faceoff circle short side over the shoulder of goaltender Carter Hart.

"It's a dream," he said afterward. "I don't know what to say."
Okposo spoke highly of his linemate's habits.
"You can tell that he's played professional hockey," Okposo said. "He does the little things right. He stays on top of people and all of the things that you need to do really well in order to play in this league. So, the learning curve with that is going to be minimal for him."

4. Skinner's two-point night

It was the first multi-point outing of the season for Skinner, who now has six points over the past four games. Both plays were followed by big smiles from the winger.
"You can never be content, but you've got to be able to enjoy the moments," Granato said. "He's finding a way to do that more. It's nice to see because it's the only way he's going to play at his peak and get into the zone, shed that baggage. And he did on those plays tonight."

5. Save of the year?

There have been a few from Linus Ullmark this season that could be worthy of that title, but this stick save on Sean Couturier might take the cake. Check it out.