In Buffalo, the Sabres broke open a 2-2 tie game with three goals in the third period to 
defeat the visiting Vancouver Canucks, 5-2 on Tuesday night.
Kyle Okposo and Zemgus Girgensons had a goal and two points apiece in the win.
“What I like about the buzz, it’s not about winning,” Sabres head coach Don Granato said. “We want to win, we play to win, obviously. … They play hard for each other and they want to come to the rink and see their buddies. They go hard in practice, they’re building that. It’s not something we’re doing as coaches, obviously. They enjoy being around each other and you can feel and see that. For them to get rewarded by winning is even better.
” … You stand here happy to be 3-0, but you’re in the NHL; you just take the points and move on. You take the points where you can get them, when you can get them and you know that you’ve got to work the next day. I think our guys have that perspective. They enjoy being around each other.”
Craig Anderson made 32 saves for the win.
Bo Horvat and Justin Dowling scored for the Canucks who kept the game close through two periods.
“We didn’t play good enough to win, that’s how I’d diagnose it,” Cancuks head coach Travis Green said. “That’s a fast team over there. I thought that we struggled with their speed a little bit at times. And usually when you struggle with a team’s speed, it’s because you are not very good with the puck. I just don’t think we were good enough to win tonight.”
The Canucks held 1-0 and 2-1 leads in the game.
With the game tied in the third, Jeff Skinner and Tage Thompson scored 32 seconds apart to deflate the Canucks.
“It’s just another brick in the foundation of the way we want to play,” Okposo said. “That’s something that you have to learn how to do as a team. You’re not going to have it every night; we play 82 games. But to find a way to stay in it and slog through a bit of your ‘B game’ until you can find the legs, find your ‘A game,’ I think we did a really good job of that. So, that’s something that is a good lesson for us to learn.”
Rasmus Asplund scored into an empty net for the clincher.
“I think essentially what led to the goals, us not executing, us not moving our feet,” Dowling said. “That’s not our game. Our game is what was going on in the first 10 minutes of the first period. Just a mentality, it’s a mindset. We’ve got to learn how to keep that going for 60 minutes.”
Thatcher Demko made 38 saves in the loss.
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