Dahlin scored twice during the third period – on both occasions cutting the lead to one goal – but the Sabres were unable to overcome an early deficit against a Canucks team that entered the night boasting the NHL’s second-best goal differential.
The Sabres sit five points behind the Detroit Red Wings for the second wild card in the Eastern Conference following the loss. The Red Wings earned an overtime win over the Columbus Blue Jackets earlier Tuesday night.
The Canucks generated a 25-10 advantage in the shot column during the first 40 minutes, opening the scoring when Connor Garland jammed the puck in from the side of the net just 4:06 into the contest. The Sabres challenged for goalie interference, believing that Garland had pushed Devon Levi’s pad into the net as he jammed at the puck, but the call on the ice stood.
“You get camera angles and sometimes you don’t have camera angles they have, and you’ve got to make a quick decision on it,” Sabres coach Don Granato said. “But obviously that’s what we challenged. It looked to us like he was pushed in.”
Elias Pettersson was on the receiving end of a rebound that deflected off Dahlin's body and scored a power-play goal to increase Vancouver’s lead to 2-0 with 6:12 remaining in the second period.
The Sabres finished the night 0-for-4 on the power play, including one opportunity that was cut short when Ilya Mikheyev created a scoring chance and drew a hooking call in the process. Pettersson scored on the ensuing Canucks power play.
“We played our ass off,” Dahlin said. “We should’ve scored when we had a chance on the power play. We had a ton of chances.”
Dahlin finally put the Sabres on the board during 4-on-4 play, with Jeff Skinner and Nikita Zadorov serving matching minor penalties during the third period. The defenseman sliced his way to the front of the Vancouver net and scored a backhand shot to make the score 2-1 with 10:37 remaining.
The Sabres pushed from that point on but were unable to put another shot past goaltender Casey DeSmith before Pettersson scored his second goal of the game into an empty net with 1:51 left to play. Dahlin scored again with 22 seconds on the clock, but time ran out on the comeback.
“Rasmus is one hell of a leader, so he scrapped, battled,” Granato said. “A night where there was a lot not going right, you stay on it, you have a chance to win it.”
The Sabres were playing the second of back-to-back road games, having previously won 6-2 in Seattle on Monday. They have two games remaining on their season-long, five-game road trip, which continues Thursday night in Edmonton.
Here’s more from the loss in Vancouver.
