Buffalo Sabres vs. Utah Hockey Club Game Preview
12/07/24 at 1:00 pm at Key Bank Center in Buffalo, NY
Record
Buffalo – 11-12-3 | 25 points – 5th place in the Atlantic Division
Utah – 10-11-4 | 24 points – 6th place in the Central Division
Special Teams
Buffalo
Power Play – 15.4% (29th)
Penalty Kill – 80.2% (15th)
Utah
Power Play – 16.9% (24th)
Penalty Kill - 76.6% (23rd)
Top Scorers
Buffalo
Alex Tuch: 26 GP, 8 G, 16 A, 24 PTS
Tage Thompson: 21 GP, 14 G, 7 A, 21 PTS
Rasmus Dahlin: 25 GP, 6 G, 13 A, 19 PTS
Utah
Clayton Keller: 25 GP, 7 G, 15 A, 22 PTS
Dylan Guenther: 25 GP, 10 G, 11 A, 21 PTS
Logan Cooley: 25 GP, 6 G, 14 A, 20 PTS
Starting Goalies
Buffalo – Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (8-6-3, 2.70 GAA, .906 save %)
Utah – Karel Vejmelka (3-7-1, 2.38 GAA, .917 save %)
Line Combinations and Pairings
Buffalo
Forwards
Jason Zucker – Tage Thompson - Alex Tuch
JJ Peterka - Dylan Cozens - Zach Benson
Jiri Kulich - Ryan McLeod - Peyton Krebs
Beck Malenstyn - Tyson Kozak - Nicolas Aube-Kubel
Ex. Jack Quinn
Defense
Bowen Byram - Connor Clifton
Owen Power - Henri Jokiharju
Jacob Bryson - Dennis Gilbert
Ex. Ryan Johnson
Goaltenders
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen
James Reimer
Injuries
Rasmus Dahlin (day-to-day - back spasms)
Sam Lafferty (day-to-day - lower body)
Jordan Greenway (IR – middle body)
Mattias Samuelsson (IR – lower body)
Notes
Buffalo has allowed just three power-play goals in the team’s last 28 penalty kill opportunities (89.3 percent).
Tage Thompson has registered 15 points (10+5) in his last 12 home games. Thompson has scored at least one goal in back-to-back games and a goal in tonight’s game would give him his third goal streak of three or more games this season.
Alex Tuch has recorded 12 points (4+8) in his last 11 games, including one assist in each of his last two.
Dylan Cozens has tallied four points (2+2) in his last four games and he has posted six points (3+3) in his last six home contests.
In his last four games, Zach Benson has recorded four assists.
Jason Zucker has tallied one assist in back-to-back games.
JJ Peterka is one point away from 100 in his career.
Since the beginning of the 2022-23 season (Owen Power’s first full season), only 37 NHL defensemen have recorded 65 or more even-strength points. Among those defensemen, Power (22 years old; 67 even-strength points) is the youngest. Since 2022-23 and among all Sabres defensemen to play a game with Buffalo in that span, he ranks tied for first in plus/minus (plus-16) and he ranks second in games played (181), goals (13), assists (70), points (83), even-strength goals (13), even-strength points, power-play points (14) and time on ice per game (23:13).
Power (22:19 time on ice per game played) is one of 12 NHL defensemen this season to record 2.50 or fewer giveaways per 60 while averaging 22 or more minutes of ice time. Power is tied for first among all Sabres defensemen in takeaways (12) and leads all Sabres defensemen in blocked shots (41) this season.
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