Sabres turn attention to Arizona following tight loss in Vegas

LAS VEGAS - Jake McCabe acknowledged the similarities between two tough-to-swallow losses.
Just as they had Wednesday in Colorado, the Buffalo Sabres went into T-Mobile Arena on Friday and went toe-to-toe with the Vegas Golden Knights for 40 minutes. And, as was the case two nights prior, the difference came down to a handful of plays in the third.
This time, it was a pair of goals from William Karlsson and Reilly Smith scored 2:19 apart in the final period that broke a 1-1 tie and propelled the Golden Knights to a 4-2 victory.

"It's tough," McCabe said. "It's real tough. We've got a lot of fight in this room. We played a good game tonight up until the third period, [then] we had a couple breakdowns. But we went into two tough buildings in a tie game and there's nothing more you can ask for on the road especially. That's a good situation to be in. We just had a tough time finding the back of the net."

Dominik Kahun scored on the second shift of his debut to put the Sabres on the board 2:16 into the contest. Their second goal wouldn't come until Jeff Skinner buried a backhand shot with 11.8 seconds remaining, at which point Vegas had already padded its lead with an empty-net goal from Smith.
What transpired in between was a tightly contested game between a Sabres team working desperately to make up ground in the standings and a Golden Knights squad that entered the night having won seven straight games, including a shutout of Edmonton two nights prior.
Nicholas Roy scored for Vegas to tie the game at one goal apiece in the first period, giving way to an evenly played second. The website Natural Stat Trick had both teams generating six scoring chances and two high-danger attempts at 5-on-5 in the middle period.
"I thought on both sides of the puck we played a really strong game here today and just had a lapse to give them the lead in the third where it was an even game," Sabres coach Ralph Krueger said. "You're waiting for a breakdown and we gave it to them. It's a defensive lapse."
Karlsson found a lane into the blue paint to break the tie just 3:06 into the final period. The play began with a perfectly placed pass from Chandler Stephenson at the point to Max Pacioretty in the slot. Pacioretty shot wide, chased the puck behind the net, and then wrapped around to the front and found Karlsson driving into the crease.
Smith doubled the lead with a wrap-around goal less than three minutes later.
"For the most part, I thought we managed our game pretty well," McCabe said. "I thought we were really good through the neutral zone especially. But yeah, in games like this, they're so tight that every single shift matters, every single battle matters, and unfortunately they won a couple more of those battles and found the back of our net."

The Sabres had chances they were unable to push past goaltender Robin Lehner, who made 32 saves in his first start with the Golden Knights after being acquired from Chicago on Monday. Natural Stat Trick gave the Sabres a 34-24 edge in 5-on-5 scoring chances. Skinner was the runaway leader with 10.
"Unfortunately, we couldn't find one early in the game," Skinner said. "It would have been nice to get one there and sort of change the momentum at some point. But hopefully we can build off that because we've got some good chances, now we just have to find a way to bear down."
The Sabres have a chance to bounce back quickly. They face another team vying for playoff positioning in the Western Conference when they visit the Arizona Coyotes on Saturday.
"It's disappointing," Skinner said. "We want to get the win, but we can't dwell on it. … We've got another challenge tomorrow and we've got to be up to the task because we have to pick up points and obviously, we know how big every game is here so we have to move on and focus on tomorrow."

Kahun's debut

Kahun became the 57th player to score in his Sabres debut, a list that includes four other active members of the team: Jack Eichel, Zemgus Girgensons, Curtis Lazar, and Kyle Okposo.
The play began with a takeaway in the offensive zone by Jimmy Vesey, who then delivered a pass to Marcus Johansson in the slot. Johansson dropped the puck back to Kahun, who did the rest.

"My linemates made a great play there," Kahun said. "Jimmy passed to JoJo and he dropped it so nice to me. So, I just shot on the net."
Kahun described his comfort within a new system as a work in progress, but Krueger spoke highly of the early impacts made both by him and fellow newcomer Wayne Simmonds.
"Throughout the game, I thought we had one of our best four-line performances today and the way Simmonds and Kahun contributed on their lines made that possible so it's something that we're excited about," he said. "It gives us more power as we move forward."

Up next

The road trip continues Saturday in Arizona. Coverage on MSG begins at 7:30 p.m. You can also listen to the game on WGR 550, with puck drop scheduled for 8.