Sharpen Up: October 26, 2016

Well, that didn't go as planned. The Sabres held a 3-0 lead in the third period last night in Philadelphia, but penalty trouble allowed the Flyers to get back into the game and Buffalo ended up on the wrong end of a 4-3 decision in the shootout.
Here's what you need to know.

The Sabres started out strong, as

notes in our game recap. Tyler Ennis opened the scoring on a nice deflection 2:06 into the second period - his first goal since Oct. 27 of last year (also in Philly).

And then Matt Moulson added a pair of power-play goals. He's taken over the team lead with four goals on the season. Anders Nilsson had a good game in net, stopping 38 shots in his first start for the Sabres.

However, Philadelphia capitalized on all three of their power-play chances in the third period. Hudson Fasching was called for tripping 2:55 into the third and Travis Konecny scored 1:35 later to make it 3-1. Dmitry Kulikov was called for charging with 3:20 remaining and Brayden Schenn scored 24 seconds later to make it 3-2. Sam Reinhart was called for high sticking with 2:27 remaining and Mark Streit scored 36 seconds later to tie it up.
"They didn't beat us. We beat ourselves tonight," Ryan O'Reilly said. "We had the game wrapped up 3-0 going into the third with Anders playing a phenomenal game. We know we have to be much better and we have to take a good hard look at ourselves and find a way to bounce back from this."

Buffalo had also committed four penalties in the third period of their loss on Thursday against Vancouver, one of which led to the Canucks scoring the eventual game-winner.
"I don't want to dissect the penalties because I'm not sure I agree with all of them. But the reason why we took the penalty, I do want to talk about. That's the way we managed the puck," coach Dan Bylsma said. "We turned it over there at the blue line and it led to the penalty. We turned the puck over again and it led to the penalty. That's more of a concern than the number of penalties we're taking."

Buffalo was outshot 19-5 in the third period and 3-1 in overtime.
Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek scored in the shootout while O'Reilly and Kyle Okposo couldn't connect and that's all she wrote.
Buffalo ended its four-game road stint by collecting four of a possible eight points.
Nilsson filled in for an ill Robin Lehner. We'll see how Lehner is doing when the team takes the ice for practice at KeyBank Center later this morning.

On tap today

Full practice coverage from Jourdon and

as Buffalo preps for tomorrow night's home game against Minnesota.
Tomorrow is also our annual Hockey Fights Cancer Night and tickets are still available so we hope you can join us for a memorable evening.

will also have a story for you today on past Hockey Fights Cancer Nights and what you can expect tomorrow if you're heading out to the game.