In Buffalo, the New Jersey Devils’ Pavel Zacha scored with 77 seconds gone in extra time on Thursday to hand the Sabres a 4-3 loss.
“On our line we all have different skills. When we’re working together it’s great,” Zacha said. “Just have to use my shot. I’ve been working on it every summer, every season. That was something mentally that I had to focus on this offseason and come into the season, keep using it more.”
Mackenzie Blackwood made 29 saves to get the win.
Jack Eichel was a scratch from the game.
“Jack’s lower-body complication showed up in the warmup,” Sabres head coach Ralph Krueger said. “It was not related to him not skating this morning. It definitely caught us all by surprise. The first diagnosis on it is day to day. The feeling he had, that there was a risk of putting him into the game situation. It’s being assessed tonight, it’s going to be assessed tomorrow.”
Riley Sheahan, Casey Mittelstadt and Sam Reinhart were the Buffalo strikers.
“I just tried to kind of get it into a shooting position,” Sheahan said. There was a defenseman there blocking the forehand side, so I just tried to use my body to protect it.”
New Jersey improved to 7-6-2.
“We knew we needed a momentum change. We knew that we needed at least one goal,” Devils coach Lindy Ruff said. “We were talking about trying to get two but to get the one by [Wood] was a big goal. … It put momentum in the right place because we’ve had some power-play opportunities that really turned the momentum the other way and tonight I thought that four-minute, we were able to turn some of the momentum and put it on our side.”
Jesper Bratt, Miles Wood and Nico Hischier scored for the Devils in regulation.
“It felt good, obviously, to get my first one, especially when I got robbed there in the first period.” Hischier said. “But the win feels even better. That’s what I was looking for.”
Buffalo dropped to 6-8-3.
“I think under all the circumstances I’m really proud of the group being able to get us into overtime,” Krueger said. “I think it’s too bad we didn’t get a line change there at about the 30-, 40-second mark. We could have done better in overtime. But getting to overtime with all the chaos that was going on in and during the game, I thought the guys stuck with it.”
Linus Ullmark, made 15 saves in the start before leaving the game in the opening period with an injury.
“It’s tough, he’s been amazing,” Sheahan said of Ullmark. “Up to this point, I mean, he’s made some unreal saves. He battles so hard, definitely we’re confident with him back there. [Hutton] is awesome, having him back there, there’s a lot of confidence. He’s such a great player, great person. We have two special goaltenders.”
Carter Hutton made 21 saves through the rest of the game.
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