Sabres look to extend point streak to 5 games tonight in Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA -With points in four straight games, the Buffalo Sabres will look to build on the positives of the last week tonight when they take on the Philadelphia Flyers at Wells Fargo Center.
They're looking to extend their point streak to five games for the first time since they recorded points in nine straight games from March 10 to 27, 2012.

Evander Kane's production has been a big part of why the Sabres have had recent success. Kane is riding a five-game point streak (2+3) for the Sabres, his longest point streak since he had points in eight straight from Feb. 12 to 26, 2013. He leads the team with 14 goals and 28 points.
"Our compete level's there. We've been working hard these last few games and I think it's paying off for us," Kane said. "We've got some great goaltending and we've scored more goals than we have in the past. Obviously, we're encouraged to score a lot more and we need to be able to score to win. For us, it's just continuing to build and try to use this as momentum."
Buffalo has scored 11 goals over the past four games, a much better number than the one they'd scored in the four games prior.
The Sabres have also recorded a power-play goal in three straight games for the second time this season and will be looking to increase that streak to four games for the first time since March 2 to 7 of last season.
"If you have a shot and it's in the right hands, I think you have to take it," Kane said of shot selection on the power play. "But you have to try to find the other team's weakness on the penalty kill and try to exploit that. Sometimes, especially off faceoffs, I think it's important to try to handle the puck, move the puck around a little bit, and try to break down their box and their PK structure."
Dan has more on that in today's video preview:

An improved commitment to defense has also been a big part of the recent turnaround, according to defenseman Marco Scandella.
"With the results, it just shows that we're playing the right way," he said. "We're doing a better job getting back for each other, helping each other out. Five men getting the puck out of the zone, we've just got to keep doing that."

Lehner to make fifth consecutive start

Coach Phil Housley referred to tonight's starter Robin Lehner as the No. 1 reason as to why the team has been able to earn points in each of the last four games and believes his stretch of good games goes back even farther.
Lehner has stopped 149 of 159 shots (.937) in his last four games. In those games, he has also stopped 110 of 114 shots faced during 5-on-5 play (.965), which includes one goal allowed with an opponent's extra attacker on the ice.
A win or overtime loss tonight would give Lehner (2-0-2) points in five straight appearances for the first time since he went 8-0-2 in his 10 starts from March 24 to Oct. 28, 2014.
"He's been playing great, making the first save," Scandella said. "But collectively, I think we're giving up less chances, less big chances. We're making it easier on ourselves as a team."
The Flyers, meanwhile, have won four in a row and have rebounded from an 0-5-5 stretch. Their 4-2 win over Toronto on Tuesday ended a six-game home losing streak (0-4-2).
Brian Elliott is expected to start in goal tonight for Philadelphia.

Tune in

The GMC Game Night pregame show from our One Buffalo Studio starts at 6:30 p.m. on MSG. Then RJ and Rayzor will call the action just after 7 on MSG and WGR 550.
Buffalo returns home on Friday for a game against Carolina at KeyBank Center.

Projected lineup

67 Benoit Pouliot - 15 Jack Eichel - 29 Jason Pominville
9 Evander Kane - 71 Evan Rodrigues - 23 Sam Reinhart
28 Zemgus Girgensons - 90 Ryan O'Reilly - 21 Kyle Okposo
20 Scott Wilson - 22 Johan Larsson - 17 Jordan Nolan
6 Marco Scandella - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
19 Jake McCabe - 47 Zach Bogosian
4 Josh Gorges - 41 Justin Falk
40 Robin Lehner
31 Chad Johnson