In Buffalo, the Sabres’ Dustin Tokarski made 20 saves in a 2-1 win over the Arizona Coyotes on Saturday afternoon.
Despite the loss, the Coyotes were a far better hockey team than their opening night performance in Columbus in an 8-2 earlier in the week.
Buffalo’s Cody Eakin tied the game 1-1 after the Coyotes had taken an early lead.
“You just want your guys to stay on it and stay with it. … I thought they did,” Sabres head coach Don Granato said. “I thought a credit to their goaltender (who) was real good and they were good defensively. They kind of anchored down a bit there. It was a little tougher than it may have looked as well. But, yeah, you definitely want to score when you see effort like that, you see them making plays. But you just got to stick with it, you can’t get frustrated. And that’s what we talked about after the second. No frustration.”
Andrew Ladd had Arizona’s lone goal in the game.
“It’s been a long road for me, two years,” Ladd said. “Mentally, the last couple of years I think just trying to stay positive and having the goal in mind of coming back to play NHL hockey again. … To be able to get back to this point and feel that again was a proud moment for myself. Not even just for me, I think my wife and kids and family have been through a lot, and when things aren’t going well on the hockey front, a lot of times they feel that on the home front. That’s definitely for them.”
Arttu Ruotsalainen was credited with the deciding goal in the skills portion of the evening.
“Team speed is one of the greatest things that you can play with,” Eakin said. “When the D-men are jumping into the play, when we have outs all over the ice, we have guys following up. It allows opportunities to happen, spaces to open, and just constantly getting that pressure, getting the puck back. It takes five guys to do that in the offensive zone and to get the puck quick in the defensive zone. So, play with speed, good things happen for everyone.”
Karel Vejmelka made 32 saves in the loss..
“I try to not be nervous, but you know it’s the first NHL game for me,” Vejmelka said. “I was a little bit nervous, for sure. But after more of the shots, it was better. I felt better and better every minute of the game.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.