Sabres unable to overcome early deficit in loss to Senators

Rasmus Dahlin felt the Buffalo Sabres let early goals compound and that it ultimately made the difference in the Sabres’ 6-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators inside KeyBank Center on Wednesday.

Artem Zub opened the scoring for the Senators 2:37 into the game as he poked the puck over the goal line after Mark Kastelic’s shot from the right circle trickled through Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen’s pads. Ottawa then added three more goals from Boris Katchouk, Drake Batherson, and Jakob Chychrun in a span of 3:53 to force coach Don Granato to make a goaltending change at the 8:49 mark of the opening period.

“Even if they get an early goal, we’ve just got to keep doing the right things,” Dahlin said. “We were trying to come back quick by doing not good stuff.”

The Sabres’ alternate captain also felt as if the team let down Luukkonen, who had previously allowed three or fewer goals in 27 of his last 29 games.

“That was probably the worst part,” Dahlin said. “We let him down. He’s been saving us for a long time now. That’s not OK from our side.”

Devon Levi entered in relief of Luukkonen and made seven saves before Brady Tkachuk capped off the Senators’ five-goal first period with 48.4 seconds remaining.

Granato thought the Sabres generated enough chances in the first, recording 11 shots and earning breakaway opportunities for Peyton Krebs and JJ Peterka, but were unable to capitalize on their chances.

“You’re frustrated. You’re disappointed,” Granato said. “Just the simple, simple things that would be routine execution were not. Obviously, that’s frustrating.”

The Sabres scored twice in the second period with goals from Peterka and Connor Clifton to cut the deficit to 5-2. Alex Tuch took a shot from the point and Peterka buried the rebound to put Buffalo on the board 2:54 into the middle frame. Clifton’s tally came off a wrist shot from the high slot that beat Senators goaltender Joonas Korpisalo to his blocker side.

Levi made 23 of his 31 saves in the second and third periods, but the Sabres were unable to get anything else past Korpisalo, who made 34 saves in the Ottawa win.

"They came in and they gave it to us and we had no answer," Clifton said. "Obviously, you give up five, that was that. We, obviously, have two in the second and we try to give a push, and then they start clearing pucks, dumping it in, and making it hard on us getting to their net. I think, yeah, that game, the first period, that was it."

The Sabres fell to 34-34-5 with the loss and sit eight points out of the final wild card spot with nine games remaining.

Here's more from Wednesday's game.

1. Jack Quinn was back in the lineup for the first time since sustaining a lower-body injury in San Jose on Jan. 27.

The forward recorded one shot and four hits in his return while logging 15:41 of ice time.

2. Peterka scored for the third consecutive game, which marks the longest goal streak of his career. The 22-year-old has tallied five points (4+1) in his last five games and now leads the team with 25 goals in 2023-24.

3. Tuch’s assist on Peterka’s goal extended both his point and assist streaks to six games.

Tuch has recorded seven assists and eight points in that span, posting the longest assist streak of his career.

He has tallied nine points (2+7) in his last eight contests.

4. Jacob Bryson registered an assist on both of Buffalo's goals, marking the seventh multi-point game of his career. He last did so on Feb. 13 in the Sabres' 7-0 win over Los Angeles.

Up next

The homestand continues Friday when the Sabres host the New Jersey Devils at KeyBank Center.

Tickets are available here. 

Pregame coverage on MSG/MSG+ begins at 6:30 p.m. with puck drop scheduled for 7. Out-of-market fans can watch the game on NHL Network while radio coverage can be found on WGR 550.