The idea is that most sporting contests are time-limited.
The idea is to play a full match.
Someone needs to tell teams like the Buffalo Sabres you cannot come out in the first period on fire, post a 3-1 lead, and then take 40 minutes off.
Zack Kassian started the second period rally for the Oilers – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
Jack Eichel struck twice, and Casey Mittelstadt scored in the opening frame for the Sabres in their match with the visiting Edmonton Oilers Monday night.
But that was it. The 3-1 lead evaporated in the second period when the Oilers rallied with three unanswered goals in a 4-3 win.
“You’ve got to play a full 60 minutes. You’ve got to check for a full 60 minutes in this League,” Sabres head coach Phil Housley said. “We outshot them, we out-chanced them. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t have come out with two points tonight, and it’s just a little bit of defensive lapses for five minutes.”
Leon Draisaitl opened the scoring in the game in the first to give the Oilers a 1-0 lead before the Sabres reeled off their three.
“We said it before, a lot of people are against us,” Draisaitl said. “We know that, but we’re not going to stop until it’s over or we’re in. Another gutsy effort, really good road trip from the whole group. We’ve got to keep this up.”
Darnell Nurse, Zack Kassian and Kyle Brodziak were the strikers in the second period.
“We stay with it on the road whereas at home we get impatient and we want to strike right away,” Oilers head coach Ken Hitchcock said.”If we can bring some of that patience off the road back home and keep working like we are and keep having the good spirit we’ve got going, you never know.”
Mikko Koskinen made 35 saves in the win.
The Oilers have won three straight and improved to 29-30-7.
“I thought [Koskinen], when it was 3-1, held us together,” Hitchcock added. “And then when we started to create some cycle game toward the end of the second, we felt a lot more comfortable in our game. But today was exactly what it was, it was a gutsy win, it was a never-say-die effort again. We’re getting a lot of that now and we’ve just got to stay with it.”
Buffalo’s season is slowly fading as the number of games dwindle. They dropped to 30-28-8 and are just 2-7-1 in their last 10.
[WATCH: All Oilers vs. Sabres highlights]
Linus Ullmark got the start for the Sabres but was given the hook in the second intermission; he yielded all four Oilers goals and made 16 saves.
“We’ve got to be better. It’s unacceptable. I thought we did a lot of good things, we created a lot of chances, had a lot of shots, probably out-chanced them, but you’ve got to play 60 (minutes) to win. It’s happened too often,” the Sabres’ Jason Pominville said.
Carter Hutton made seven saves in the third.
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