In Las Vegas, the Buffalo Sabres scored three times in the second period on Monday, and held off a late surge from the Holden Knights in a 3-2 win.
It was the fourth straight win for the Sabres.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 41 saves in the Sabres win.
“I think the defense played well, even though there was a lot of shots,” Luukkonen said. “We were boxing out and we were taking the sticks away in front of the net. So that always makes my job easier.”
Buffalo improved to 16-14-2.
“[Luukkonen] was great for us tonight,” Buffalo coach Don Granato said. “We have to keep in perspective that three weeks ago, we were ready to say, ‘He can’t do it.’ Love our team;Â that’s why you stand by your guys and support them through the challenges. I would say he was one key part. The rest of the guys were outstanding. You come to this building, you guys see the atmosphere. They’re a hungry team over there, they’re a very capable team. You’ve got to persevere and find a way. It’s not going to be pretty. You’re going to have to face a lot of momentum swings against you with talented players they have. Credit to all our guys for staying focused and dialed in all the way through.”
Jeff Skinner scored in the middle frame to give the Sabres a 1-0 lead, the marker extended his point streak to eight games.
Tage Thompson and Lawrence Pilut pushed the lead to 3-0 before the end of the second.
“I get a lot of space out there with my linemates ‘Tuchy’ and ‘Skinny;’ They’re both really good,” Thompson said. “All three of us do a really good job getting in on the forecheck. Tuchy especially, he’s just so fast. It creates a lot of time and space. That’s the result of that goal right there, you saw, their forwards were leaving the zone. [Casey Fitzgerald] makes a great play stepping in there and keeping it in. So, great play by him and I was able to outwait the [defense] and find the back of the net.”
Chandler Stephenson and Reilly Smith hit for goals in the third period to close the gap to 3-2.
“We didn’t finish well enough tonight,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “We had, off the top of my head, four breakaways, a penalty shot. We scored on one eventually, which got us some juice. Early on, we missed some open nets on the power play. That’s the hope, if you keep generating at some point, you’ll finish those plays. We did some of those in the third.”
Vegas dropped to 22-11-1.
“I thought we generated enough tonight to win,” Cassidy said. “I think the analytics, chance reports and all that will back that up.”
Luukkonen stopped Jonathan Marchessault on a penalty shot in the third period.
“It’s kind of the same as every time you take a penalty shot, is that you don’t want to make the first move,” Luukkonen said. “You kind of have to wait the player out, so that worked pretty well this time.”
Adin Hill made 15 saves in the loss.
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