In Detroit, Alex Nedeljkovic made 22 saves in the Red Wings’ 4-0 win over the visiting Buffalo Sabres on Saturday.
“We’re going to have to get them on the plane with us to Buffalo to keep this going,” Red Wings head coach Jeff Blashill said. “I didn’t know about that, that’s awesome for him. That’s great.”
Tyler Bertuzzi and Robby Fabbri scored in the opening frame for a 2-0 lead.
“This is a huge win for us, because we needed to end the losing streak, especially after getting shut out at home in our last game (3-0 by the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday),” Bertuzzi said. “We can’t just do it tonight, though. We have to come out in our next game and back this up.”
Detroit improved to 17-17-5.
“Our special teams were huge tonight,” Bertuzzi said. “Our power play was good and our kill was even better.”
The Red Wings scored twice off the power play, both coming in the first period.
“This was close to the opposite of what we saw against Nashville (a 4-1 win Thursday),” Sabres head coach Don Granato said. “There’s no way to sugarcoat it. It just wasn’t good enough from start to finish.”
Buffalo dropped to 11-20-6.
The Sabres were scoreless in three power play chances.
“We did nothing on the power play,” Granato said. “You have to find something there. You have to dig and fight. The power plays just exemplified the rest of the game.”
Lucas Raymond scored 13 seconds into the final frame for a 3-0 lead, and Michael Rasmussen pushed to 4-0 ;later in the period.
“I think the biggest thing is that he won’t have to answer any more questions about it,” Blashill said. “We weren’t worried about it, because he was still creating chances and still helping us win hockey games, but you certainly feel better when you get one to go in.”
Aaron Dell made 35 saves in the Sabres loss.
You must be logged in to post a comment.