The Sabres opened the scoring just 5:07 into the contest on a goal from Jack Quinn, who scored from the point with bodies in front of Kraken goaltender Joey Daccord. The Kraken responded with their first goal just 27 seconds later, the product of a battle won below the Buffalo net by John Hayden and Mitchell Stephens. After securing possession for the Kraken, Hayden popped to the net-front and buried a rebound off a shot from the point.
Seattle went on to score the next two goals, a quick strike from Chandler Stephenson off a blocked shot later in the first period and a power-play goal from Matty Beniers early in the second, to earn a 3-1 lead.
“Didn’t win enough battles,” forward Tage Thompson said, echoing his coach. “I thought our execution in the first was terrible. This is a tough building to come in and play in and we weren’t committed to the game plan we set in front of ourselves.
“We told ourselves we were going to get pucks behind them, get pucks to the net. We were slow through the neutral zone, we were on the perimeter, held onto pucks too long, turned them over and just fueled their offense.”
The Sabres staged a comeback in the second period, tying the score at 3-3 on goals from Jason Zucker and Thompson. Once again, the Kraken responded quickly, with defenseman Jamie Oleksiak pinching down from the offensive blue line to bury a one-timer just 56 seconds after Thompson had scored the tying goal.
“The good was we battled back,” Ruff said. “The bad was as soon as we battled back, we gave up one. On two of the goals we scored, we immediately give up one.”
Seattle added to its lead with 9:35 remaining in the third period on an Adam Larsson shot that deflected off Thompson and went in between the pads of goaltender Devon Levi.
Alex Tuch scored 6-on-5 to spark one final comeback push with 1:21 left to play, but Jared McCann scored an empty-net goal for the Kraken 17 seconds later.
The loss opened a four-game road trip for the Sabres, which continues Tuesday in Vancouver. Ruff had a simple directive in terms of the response he hopes to see.
“Just win battles,” he said. “Win battles.”
Here’s more from the loss.