In Buffalo, the Sabres dropped a 4-1 decision to the Arizona Coyotes on Tuesday night.
Lawson Crouse set the tone for the game with 56 seconds gone in the game and a 1-0 lead to the Coyotes.
“It’s huge because we have a ton of respect for Buffalo, the way they create their offense,” Arizona coach Andre Tourigny said. “They’re a possession team, their ‘D’ are really active offensively so for all those reasons, taking the lead early was really good for us because we didn’t have to chase the game. It’s a good feeling sometimes to protect a lead.”
Karel Vejmelka made 32 save in the Arizona win.
“We played a real good game tonight and against one of the best teams in the League right now,” said Vejmelka, who made his NHL debut in Buffalo on Oct. 16, 2021. “We really deserved to win tonight so we did a really good job.”
Tage Thompson tied, 1-1, at 14:20 off a power plat strike.
“Before I take any questions, I don’t care what the stats said at all,” Buffalo coach Don Granato said. “I don’t know what the stats said. I thought the game, and we felt we wanted an easier game. We didn’t do what it took to maybe create more chances or score the goals we needed from identifying how the game was, get to the net enough, get pucks to the net. At the end of it, you look at it, we had three goals [against] … the first one starting off Owen [Power] off a reverse and the next two off of us into our own net. That’s an indication of us not being ready like we should’ve been and we need to be.”
The Coyotes improved to 5-6-1.
Arizona reclaimed the lead, 2-1, in the first off a goal from Matias Maccelli, .
The Sabres dropped to 7-6-0.
“You have to tip your hat to their goalie,” Thompson said. “He played a good game. I think obviously we could have done a better job getting more bodies to the net and getting some traffic.”
Liam O’Brien scored 2:24 into the third period for a 3-1 lead to the Coyotes.
The Coyotes have won twice to start their 14-game road trip.
“It’s a great start for us,” O’Brien said. “I think we’re playing a great team game and it’s showing on the ice.”
Clayton Keller added an empty-net goal for the 4-1 final with 2:10 left in the game..
“Their first three goals went off of us, and don’t be fooled by us,” Granato said. “We didn’t play hard enough in the areas we need to play hard. We were too slow that we hit goal posts. Their goalie, I thought, played real well. But the bottom line is we could’ve won a game, but we didn’t go attack a game like we needed to. We certainly could’ve won the game, but did we play the way we needed to play? No, we didn’t.”
Eric Comrie made 19 saves in the Buffalo loss.
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