Sabres rally to beat Kraken, end 3-game skid

The Sabres were at serious risk of a fourth straight loss on Saturday at KeyBank Center. Late in the second period, a tough sequence of events saw Sam Carrick hit both posts with a shot at one end before the Kraken extended their lead to 2-0 at the other. Buffalo had also been unhappy with multiple penalty calls to that point.

They proceeded to come back and earn a 3-2 shootout win over Seattle, maintaining their two-point cushion over Tampa Bay for the Atlantic Division lead.

“There’s a lot of stuff you’ve got to fight through; I thought our guys did,” said coach Lindy Ruff. “They stayed together, the bench was good and they just kept talking about getting back in the game.”

Kraken goalie Philipp Grubauer had been a perfect 24-for-24 before Rasmus Dahlin scored on a late-second power play, his 100th career goal, to break the dam.

Then Peyton Krebs tied it 2-2 with 8:21 remaining in regulation. He was on the puck all evening and got rewarded, as did Zach Benson for another crucial late-game play. Benson entered the zone, drew two defenders toward the wall and flipped the puck ahead to an open Krebs for the goal.

“He's done that a lot this year, drawing guys to him and laying it to an area,” Tage Thompson said of Benson. “And then speed away from the puck. Krebs wins his race and scores a huge one for us.”

Buffalo has faced a multi-goal deficit in four of its 17 games since the Olympic break and has come back to tie it three times (going 2-0-1). Those five standings points will have major standings implications when the regular season ends, possibly giving the Sabres home-ice advantage in the first round, and they speak to this team’s resilience. Even going back to that three-goal comeback in Detroit in November, the 2025-26 Sabres never seem to be out of a game.

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“The battle by our guys tonight was big enough to overcome anything in the game that could’ve kept us from winning,” Ruff said.

The Sabres, who’d lost in overtime on Sunday and Wednesday, controlled much of the 3-on-3 possession this time but couldn’t beat Grubauer with three shots. That set up the shootout, where they improved to 5-0 this season.

Thompson scored in Round 1, then Jack Quinn (unsurprisingly) added on. Quinn looked to be going with his usual move before faking Grubauer into a dive and tucking it inside the post.

“I’ve done that one a few times, but not in a couple years, so the guys wanted me to bring it back out,” said Quinn, who improved to 4-for-5 in shootouts this season and 9-for-14 in his career.

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen denied attempts from Freddy Gaudreau and Kaapo Kakko to secure his 18th win. He had another great night in net with 32 saves, including eight on high-danger shots (Natural Stat Trick).

“We got a heck of a night from our goaltender, because I thought defensively, we made some big mistakes,” Ruff said, citing a Kraken breakaway to start the second period. “We put them in position to probably score four or five, but I thought UPL was really good for us.”

Here’s more from the win.

Back to backs

The Sabres, who lost to Detroit on Friday, improved to an impressive 8-1-3 in the second half of back-to-backs this season. Where fatigue might be expected, it rarely seems to be an issue.

“We’re a younger team. I think we have to use that to our advantage,” Luukkonen said. “We have a good skating team. We don’t really sit back.”

They have one more back-to-back set ahead: April 8 at the Rangers, April 9 versus the Blue Jackets.

Carrick at the dot

Trade acquisition Sam Carrick continues to live up to his reputation at the faceoff dot, as he won 14 of 18 tries versus Seattle. He also won one of two faceoffs in overtime, heading straight for the bench once possession was settled.

Carrick has won 58.2 percent of his faceoffs since the trade deadline.

Postgame sound

Up next

The Sabres host another playoff contender, the New York Islanders, on Tuesday at 7 p.m., with MSG’s pregame coverage starting at 6:30.

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