In Buffalo, the San Jose Sharks had a 4-1 lead over the Sabres and everything seemed to be on cruise control.
But the Sabres rallied with three goals in regulation to tie it up and then
Evander Kane scored the game-winner early in extra time to give Buffalo the dramatic win.
“That’s probably the worst we’ve played and gotten a win, but in saying that, we never gave up and it’s a huge win for us,” Sabres right wing Kyle Okposo said. “We’ve got to get two points. We’ve been saying it for a couple months, we’ve got to find ways to win games and I guess that’s one of the ways. We stuck with it and our power play came up with a couple big goals for us tonight and we were able to find a way.”
The Sabres improved to 22-21-10 with the win.
Jack Eichel set up the game winner on a 2-on-1 break.
“I saw [Eichel] come around the net and I knew just to get to the middle of the ice,” Kane said. “He was going to beat his man and I was going to beat mine and he’s able to feather one through and I was able to put it away.”
Kane also had a goal in the third period to get the Sabres to a 4-3 deficit.
WATCH: All Sharks vs. Sabres highlights
Ryan O’Reilly, Kyle Okposo, and Matt Moulson also scored. Moulson had give the Sabres a 1-0 lead before the Sharks reeled off four straight in response.
San Jose’s goals came from Joel Ward, Logan Couture, Melker Karlsson, and Joe Pavelski.
“I felt like [Atlanta Falcons coach] Dan Quinn in the Super Bowl [on] Sunday. It was one of those games. Thank God it wasn’t the Finals; it was a game in the middle of February,” Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer said of the turn around in the game. “We found a way to get a point, but we couldn’t have played a better road game for 45-50 minutes. We’ve got to learn a lesson there. We didn’t manage the puck, we took some penalties, we gave up some odd-man attacks, all the things you don’t want to do with the lead and it burned us.”
Martin Jones took the loss on 31 saves.
Anders Nilsson got the win for Buffalo on 33 saves.
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