Sabres Hope To Sweep Road Swing In Columbus

1/3/26 - 3:00pm at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, OH

Buffalo – 21-14-4 | - 44  points – 4th place in the Atlantic Division

Columbus  – 17-16-6 | - 40 points – 8th place in the Metropolitan Division

Special Teams

Buffalo

Power Play – 18.8% (18th)

Penalty Kill – 85.0% (2nd)

Columbus

Power Play – 18.6% (19th)

Penalty Kill - 75.0% (29th)

Top Scorers

Buffalo

Tage Thompson: 39 GP, 20 G, 17 A, 37 PTS

Alex Tuch: 38 GP, 12 G, 20 A, 32 PTS

Rasmus Dahlin: 35 GP, 4 G, 24 A, 28 PTS

Columbus

Zach Werenski: 35 GP, 14 G, 26 A, 40 PTS

Kirill Marchenko: 35 GP, 14 G, 17 A, 31 PTS

Dmitri Voronkov: 39 GP, 13 G, 12 A, 25 PTS

Starting Goalies(projected)

Buffalo – Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (7-5-1, 2.46 GAA, .903 Sv %)

Columbus –  Jet Greaves (11-10-5, 2.62 GAA, .909 Sv%)

Other Sabres Stories

Six Former Sabres Who Signed Elsewhere

Sabres Line Combinations and Pairings (projected)

Forwards

Peyton Krebs - Tage Thompson - Josh Doan 

Zach Benson - Ryan McLeod - Jack Quinn 

Noah Ostlund - Josh Norris - Alex Tuch

Jordan Greenway - Beck Malenstyn  - Tyson Kozak

Ex. Josh Dunne

Defense

Mattias Samuelsson - Rasmus Dahlin

Bowen Byram - Michael Kesselring 

Jacob Bryson - Owen Power 

Ex. Zach Metsa  

Goaltenders

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen

Colten Ellis

Injuries

Justin Danforth (lower body, Oct. 18; injured reserve)

Jiri Kulich (blood clot, Nov. 4; injured reserve) 

Jason Zucker (upper body/lower body, Dec. 9; injured reserve)

Alex Lyon (day-to-day, lower-body) 

Conor Timmins (broken leg, Dec. 20; injured reserve)

Notes

The Sabres are riding a 10-game winning streak and a win tonight would give them the longest winning streak in franchise history. Buffalo’s current 10-game winning streak is the longest active streak in the NHL and it is tied for the longest streak by a team this season.  A win tonight would give Buffalo the longest winning streak of 2025-26 and it would mark the 24th instance of an NHL team recording 11 or more consecutive victories since 1999. 

The Sabres have earned seven consecutive wins on the road, the fourth-longest road winning streak in franchise history. Nov. 19 to Dec. 19, 2005 (nine games), Oct. 4 to Nov. 13, 2006 (10 games) and Dec. 10, 1983 to Jan. 23, 1984 (10 games) are the only instances in which Buffalo has tallied a longer road winning streak. Buffalo has allowed two or fewer goals in six consecutive games, the longest such streak by a Sabres team since Nov. 25 to Dec. 5, 2009 (six games). If the Sabres allow two or fewer goals in tonight’s game, it will mark the longest such streak by a Sabres team since Jan. 10 to 24, 2003 (seven games). 

The Sabres have allowed two or fewer goals in seven or more consecutive games nine times in franchise history. 

Tage Thompson has recorded 16 points (8+8) in his last 14 games, including six points (2+4) in his last five games. 

In his last five games, Bowen Byram has registered seven points (3+4). 

Rasmus Dahlin (3+9) and Josh Norris (5+7) have each collected 12 points in their last 12 games. 

Mattias Samuelsson has posted seven points (1+6) in his last seven games. 

Peyton Krebs has recorded three points (2+1) in his last three games. 

Noah Ostlund has tallied four points (2+2) in his last four games and he has posted at least one point in back-to-back contests. A point tonight would give Ostlund the first three-game point streak of his career. 

Alex Tuch has collected one point in back-to-back games (1+1). 

 Follow Michael on X, Instagram @MikeInBuffalo