In Buffalo, the Sabres kept their post season hopes alive with a 5-4 win over the New Jersey Devils on Friday night.
It was in the end as the Sabres surrendered two third period goals to Jack Hughes to close the gap to one goal, 5-4.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 27 saves to preserve the win for Buffalo.
Dylan Cozens and Tage Thompson  scored for Buffalo in the opening stanza for a 2-0 lead to the Sabres.
“That was big for us. Obviously, we’ve been struggling lately,” Cozens said. “To come out and get the first one and the first few, it was big for us. Obviously, we don’t quite like how we ended it. We let them back in it, but we got the win. That’s what matters.”
Buffalo is six points back of the second wild card in the Eastern Conference.
Yegor Sharangovich trimmed the deficit for New Jersey to 2-1 at 9:07 of the first, but Jack Quinn pushed it back to two goals at 3-1, at 10:55.
“I don’t know why we played like this tonight,” New Jersey defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler said. “Maybe it was some pressure. We were able to clinch today if we win; maybe that was kind of in our head, I don’t know. We know we didn’t play our best, and I think it’s important to know that we didn’t play good.”
New Jersey dropped to 45-19-8 on their fifth loss in six games.
New Jersey’s Kevin Bahl scored with 74 seconds left in the the first for a 3-2 score.
Alex Tuch hit for a double in the middle frame, once at 4:50, and again at 16:38 for a 5-2 lead coming out of the second period.
“I really pushed hard to get back, and sometimes that comes with a little bit more inconsistency and a feeling out process getting back into it,” Tuch said. “Jumping back in wasn’t the easiest, but I thought my teammates really helped me out just pushing and getting back to the grind. And having fun too; I thought tonight we had a lot more fun than we’ve had, especially since we won. Just playing our game and playing fast.”
Use CodePHN15
Akira Schmid got the start for New Jersey and surrendered three goals and made four saves before getting the hook in the first period.
“It was definitely not on our goaltender,” New Jersey coach Lindy Ruff said. “Our goaltenders have been big for us. They’ve made big saves. They went through a lot of people before they got to our goaltender.”
Vitek Vanecek made 17 saves in relief.
You must be logged in to post a comment.