Luukkonen records first career shutout in a win over the Central Division leader
Luukkonen records first career shutout in a win over the Central Division leader
The Buffalo Sabres needed to put together more of a consistent effort after playing spotty in a 5-4 loss to New Jersey on Friday and bounced back with perhaps their best effort of the season in a 4-0 victory over the Colorado Avalanche at Key Bank Center on Sunday afternoon.
J-J Peterka, Casey Mittelstadt, Tyson Jost, and Rasmus Dahlin scored for Buffalo, and Luukkonen made 26 saves for his first career shutout. The Sabres were sluggish out of the gate and allowed the Avs to dominate play in the opening five minutes of the first period, but were able to withstand the onslaught thanks to the goaltending of Luukkonen, who kept Colorado off the scoreboard until Peterka scored at 10:12 of the first period. Mittelstadt and Jost (a former Colorado first-round pick) added to the lead and Dahlin capped off the victory with his second of the season into the empty net.
Here are three takeaways from Buffalo’s 4-0 victory over Colorado:
A Much-Improved PK
There are many areas that can be singled out as reasons why the Sabres missed the playoffs last year, but near the top of the list was their penalty killing, which was 28th in the NHL last season (73%). Entering the game, Buffalo was 8th in the league at 87.1%, thanks in part to the addition of veteran Erik Johnson and his ability to clear the front of the net.
Colorado with weapons like Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar went 0-6 with the man advantage and could not close the gap on the Sabres in the latter half of the game.
Makar’s Close Call
Avs defenseman Cale Makar received a bit of a scare late in the second period. The Norris Trophy winner went behind the net to retrieve the puck and was being chased by Sabres captain Kyle Okposo. Okposo made contact that put Makar off balance and he slid into the end boards awkwardly.
Makar recovered and returned for the third period. According to Lance Lysowski of the Buffalo News, Okposo spoke to Makar after the game and explained that he was trying to lift his stick and inadvertently made contact with him.
Luukkonen Filling The Gap
The news has not been good for the Sabres goaltending the last week, with Devon Levi slowly recovering from a lower-body injury and Eric Comrie getting injured in the loss to the Devils on Friday. After a good start in which he gave up three late goals in a 6-4 win over Ottawa, Luukkonen provided Buffalo with a solid performance against one of the NHL’s best teams.
"Sometimes you leave (your goaltending) hanging and there's points in the game where you're relying on your goalie and for him to keep them off the scoreboard until we could get our legs under us and find our rhythm was everything." Sabres head coach Don Granato said after the victory. "You don't want to give that team confidence and he denied that with some early action against him."
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