In Buffalo, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 23 saves, and the Sabres shut out the Colorado Avalanche, 4-0, in a Sunday matinee.
“It feels great, especially now when it’s only my second start of the season and maybe in Ottawa (a 6-4 Sabres win Oct. 24) the numbers didn’t reflect how good I felt in that game,” Luukkonen said. “It’s really a confidence booster for me and I’ve been waiting for a long time.”
Four different strikers hit for goals in the win.
“I don’t care who it is against,” Buffalo defenseman Erik Johnson said. “We needed to have a game like that, and it just happened to be against one of the top teams in the League. I think that’s a good measuring stick for us. That’s a team that knows how to win, that’s won … so regardless of who we played, we needed to have a game like that, but to have it against a team like that, it’s a new standard for us and it’s got to be continued on.”
Buffalo took a 1-0 lead midway through the first period on a marker from JJ Peterka, the goal came after the Avs had controlled much of the offense in the first half of the period.
“I didn’t mind our start,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “I thought we were there to play the right way. We checked hard early in the game, creating high-danger chances. Like I said last game, was an issue and an issue again tonight, and a couple of things that cost us in Pittsburgh.
“You’ve got to give Buffalo credit. They checked hard, they did the right things, longer and harder than we did. … but no excuses. We’ve got to be better taking care of the puck through the neutral zone and we’ve got to continue to work to try and create those high-danger chances. And I thought they did a better job with that tonight than we did.”
In the middle frame, the Sabres struck twice on goals from Casey Mittelstadt at 1:39 for a 2-0 lead, and from Tyson Jost at 8:16 who ballooned the lead to 3-0 after two periods.
“I think they played a solid game, but at the same time I just think at the moment right now, I don’t know if we’ve just gotten complacent as a team,” Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar said. “Obviously, you come off of six wins and everybody’s gung-ho at you, and then you kind of get punched in the face in Pittsburgh a little bit with a 4-0 loss and same tonight.
“If anything, it’s just a reality check, reset the boys. That’s all you can do. We’re at an early point in the season now where regardless of the power play or 5-on-5, we have to continue building that momentum. It just really never feels like we get that kind of foot in the door. … It feels like right now there’s just kind of stuttering on that momentum. Lucky for us that’s easy to find. It’s just unfortunately it’s happened two games in a row.”
Rasmus Dahlin s added an empty-net strike with 3:08 left o the game clock for the 4-0 final.
“I feel like they made a great play,” Luukkonen said. “I was a little late to that one but was able to make the save. I feel like that was a big one just because we’re not going behind in the early stage of the first and we go and get the first goal of the game, which is huge. That felt good.”
Alexandar Georgiev made 25 saves in the loss.
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