In Buffalo, the visiting Winnipeg Jets kept their playoff chances alive on Wednesday night with a 3-2 win over the Sabres after skills.
Blake Wheeler was credited with the deciding goal in the skills portion of the evening’s affairs.
Wheeler also had a strike in regulation.
“Not a great first period. I think we’re still kind of a tired team,” Wheeler said. “We just played five games in [nine] days. … Hopefully, we can get back a little bit of jump in our step (at the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday). We’ve got two more games, two big games before we get a nice little break. We’ve just got to dig deep.”
The Jets trail the Vegas Golden Knights by two points for the final playoff spot in the West.
“It was one of those things where I’m kind of in behind the goalie and he dekes, and the whole way I think he’s sliding it to me and our angles kind of converge and it’s going right into the net,” Wheeler said. “Instincts take over and, honestly, my first thought was I could have knocked that out of the net and that would have been horrible. I guess I owe ‘Dubie’ one. I’ll try and get him an empty-net (goal) one of these days.”
Connor Hellebuyck made 35 saves in the Jets win.
Winnipeg improved to 33-25-10.
Zemgus Girgensons hit for a double for the Sabres.
“I think we generated a lot of chances,” Girgensons said. “Sometimes goalies make big stops. Especially in [overtime] there, we had a golden opportunity and the goalie just came up big for them.”
Buffalo is 4-0-3 in their last seven games.
“I felt that Hellebuyck was very good for them,” Buffalo coach Don Granato said. “We could’ve had some separation. There wasn’t, and credit to him. I thought the skilled players for Winnipeg made a pretty good push in the third, and I thought ‘Andy’ got to his game a little bit in the third. It was a hard-fought game, but yeah, we could’ve had some separation. We played very well early, and not that we did poorly late, but we played better early and couldn’t get that separation.”
Mason Appleton tied the game, 2-2, with 22 seconds left to foce the extra session, and skills.
“That’s what ‘Apple’ does, right?” Winnipeg coach Dave Lowry said. “He’s had some good games since he’s come over. He played his game, he played straight lines. He was in on the forecheck. I liked that line. I like what they did. Nice to see him get rewarded.”
Craig Anderson made 25 saves in the Sabres loss.
“Zemgus, it was nice to see him score a couple tonight,” Granato said. “He could’ve had a couple more. Smart player, he’s a worker, he’s always working, he’s always prepared to play. And by virtue of all that, he’s a heck of a leader for us. So good to see him rewarded.”
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