Hutton comes up big again in shootout win over Jets

WINNIPEG - It's become a winning recipe as of late for the Buffalo Sabres - stellar goaltending from Carter Hutton, a timely goal from Jeff Skinner and a belief that they're never really out of a game.
All those ingredients came together once again in a 2-1 shootout win over the Winnipeg Jets on Friday. Hutton kept them in it when the Jets made an early push, Skinner erased a one-goal deficit 53 seconds into the third period and Jack Eichel, Jason Pominville and Conor Sheary tallied goals in the seven-round shootout.
The Sabres have won four games in a row for the first time since December 2014. They've done it against opponents with a combined record of 44-25-8.

"We bent a little bit, but we didn't break," Sabres coach Phil Housley said. "I think last year we maybe would have broken a little bit more and gave the game away. We hung in there. That's what's great about this group, that they stick with it.
"We make some adjustments between periods and they follow through with those adjustments. It's great for them. They've showed the resiliency up to this point in the season."

As with their win over Tampa Bay on Tuesday, the Sabres had to rely on Hutton more than they'd like. They struggled to maintain offensive-zone time during a first period in which they were outshot, 14-2. Hutton had to rob Mark Scheifele of a back-door deflection to keep the game scoreless.
The Jets didn't break through until 7:10 in the second period, when Kyle Connor buried a 2-on-1 feed from Patrik Laine. All said, the damage could have been worse.
"That's a good hockey team over there," Hutton said. "We expected them to tilt the ice a little bit, especially at home. I've played against them enough in my career to know that they're going to come. Fortunately enough, we kept them at one there."
The Sabres began the third period down a goal with 1:42 remaining on their third power play of the night. They entered the night amid a 0-for-10 drought with the extra man, and Housley stressed getting pucks to the net as a remedy.
Skinner's tying goal was vindication. Patrik Berglund - a new addition to Buffalo's top unit - won a battle along the boards down low and passed to Rasmus Dahlin at the point, who then moved the puck to Eichel on the left flank. Eichel took a quick shot, and Skinner was able to go top shelf with the rebound.

"You look at the power play, we just kept trying to shoot, trying to get the puck to the net," Housley said. "The volume of shots was there. And then we get in there and it creates second and third opportunities. That's a perfect example."
The goal was Skinner's team leading 14th of the season, which ranks second in the NHL, and fifth during a four-game point streak. It also marked the 400th point of his career.
"I think sometimes that's just the way it goes," he said. "D-men, they've got such good sticks and they're in such good position sometimes, you've got to find little opportunities to get pucks off. Fortunately for me I think today it kind of bounced right on my stick off of a rebound. I was able to get it up pretty quick."
The Sabres dominated for much of the period from that point on, holding the Jets without a shot until 10:37 had ticked off the clock.
"I think we just got back on our toes," Skinner said. "I think early in the game they did a great job of sort of clogging up the neutral zone. … We tried to bring the puck up, they sort of clogged everything up and didn't allow us to get in and sustain any forecheck or gain any momentum in the offensive zone.
"I think we got on our toes a little bit in the third. We got to spend some more time in their end and it helped out a lot."
The game bled into a back-and-forth overtime affair, which paved the way for an equally compelling shootout. Eichel scored on the Sabres' first attempt, Pominville buried a wrist shot in the fifth round to keep them alive, and Sheary ended it by scoring on his first NHL shootout attempt.

Hutton stopped five of the seven shots he faced in the shootout, on top of the 25 saves he made in regulation.
The Sabres have a chance to extend their win streak to five when they continue their three-game road trip in Minnesota on Saturday.
"It should give us some confidence," Skinner said. "It definitely gives us some confidence in Hutts. We don't want to ask that much of him every night, but he's been huge the last two games. We played some pretty good teams and we've gotten the job done. Hopefully we can use this at the start of a road trip to sort of build some confidence and maybe build some momentum."

Up next

The Sabres head to St. Paul to play the Wild on Saturday. Coverage on MSG-B begins at 5:30 p.m. with the GMC Game Night pregame show on MSG-B, or you can listen live on WGR 550. The puck drops at 6.