By Jourdon LaBarber – Sabres.com (@JourdonLaBarber)
DENVER – As the puck bounced behind him with 31.7 seconds remaining, Robin Lehner’s reaction said everything you need to know about the Buffalo Sabres’ level of frustration with the way their 2-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche ended on Wednesday night.
Alex Tanguay dished the puck along the wall to Francois Beauchemin in the final minute and the defenseman sent a shot toward the net that bounced past Lehner off the pad of Sabres defenseman Mark Pysyk.
After controlling the game for the first two periods, Lehner couldn’t believe it had gotten away from them.
“Yeah, it’s tough,” Lehner said. “I thought we played a good road game, I thought everyone battled and played hard and we deserved at least a point out of this one.”
The contest took a turn 4:51 into the third period when Evander Kane received a four-minute penalty for high-sticking. The Sabres killed the penalty, but weren’t able to change lines before Colorado struck for the game-tying goal.
This time, it was Tanguay who scored on assists from Carl Soderberg and Beauchemin. Soderberg skated through the crease and drew Lehner out to the left, then dished a pass back to Tanguay who delivered a backhand shot into the open net.
“I thought we were going to steal the momentum of the game with the kill,” Sabres coach Dan Bylsma said. “It was a crucial part of the game and we still hadn’t recovered. The guy came back on the ice, he went down low but we still hadn’t gotten those guys off the ice and they took advantage.”
“We did a good job getting the kill and trying to save gas to try and hold them off but when you kill four minutes it’s never easy,” said Ryan O’Reilly, who notched an assist in his return to Colorado. “It was tough to come back from.”
Kane scored Buffalo’s only goal of the game on the power play with 3:22 remaining in the second period. Lehner made 33 saves in his second game back since returning from a high ankle sprain. The loss snapped a two-game winning streak for Buffalo.
“We have to win those games,” Kane said. “Those are big points we just lost. That’s unfortunate but now we have to look ahead and look forward to Detroit.”
REINHART INJURED
Adding to the disappointment of the loss was the absence of rookie Sam Reinhart after a collision with Colorado’s John Mitchell with 5:56 remaining in the second period. Reinhart left the game with an upper-body injury and did not return.
Bylsma did not have an update regarding a potential length for Reinhart’s injury but said that he would undergo further evaluation when the team returns to Buffalo. Reinhart has 20 points (12+8) in 46 games this season.
A BIG NIGHT FROM LEHNER
Buffalo’s goalie was at his best on Wednesday, making multiple big saves to keep the Avalanche off the board in the second and third periods. Some of his best stops came during Colorado’s first power play in the second, including a wild diving stop on a shot from Nick Holden after a scramble in front of the net.
“I thought Robin was exceptional. Go to the kill in the first period, the flurry, he made two huge stops,” Bylsma said. “I thought he looked really good in net and it was just disappointing that kind of a redirect by us, through us is the one that gets by him.”
Despite the effort, it was difficult for Lehner to draw positives from the disappointing conclusion.
“Right now, the loss kind of sucks,” he said. “I felt like I battled, felt like I saw the puck well and felt like I made some saves. In the end, that doesn’t count.”
SPECIAL TEAMS STAY STRONG
Despite the eventual outcome, the double minor against Kane in the third period proved to be yet another success story from Buffalo’s red-hot penalty kill. The Sabres were 3-for-3 on the penalty kill for the night, extending their streak to five games without allowing a power-play goal (15-for-15).
Kane’s goal, meanwhile, marked Buffalo’s fourth power-play goal in its last three games. With Kane filling in for Reinhart on the team’s top unit, all five Sabres on the ice touched the puck on the goal-scoring play.
Jamie McGinn got the ball rolling when he passed the puck to Rasmus Ristolainen at the point. Ristolainen moved the puck over to O’Reilly, who pushed a quick pass to Jack Eichel as he crossed through the slot. Eichel tapped the puck to Kane, who beat Avalanche goaltender Semyon Varlamov with a sharp wrister between the pads.
“We’re getting good zone time, we’re getting lots of opportunities and even when we don’t score on the power play it seems like we’re generating quite a bit,” Kane said. “The power play’s been big for us, that’s going to be a key moving forward here before the break.”
UP NEXT
The Sabres will return home to face the Detroit Red Wings on Friday at First Niagara Center. Buffalo is 1-1-1 against Detroit this season, with the Red Wings taking the last matchup in Buffalo by a score of 4-3 on Jan. 2.
Coverage on Friday begins at 6:30 p.m. with Tops Sabres Gamenight on MSG-B and Bell TV. The game can also be heard live on WGR 550.
(Reprinted With Permission Of The Buffalo Sabres)
