Three Takeaways From The Buffalo Sabres 3-1 Victory Over The New York Islanders
Sabres finally break through in the second period on weary Islanders
Three Takeaways From The Buffalo Sabres 3-1 Victory Over The New York IslandersThe Buffalo Sabres responded to a disappointing loss to Calgary on Thursday with their best performance of the season on a 3-1 victory over the New York Islanders at Key Bank Center on Saturday night.
The Sabres wore their throwback Red, White, and Black jerseys for the first time this season and it seemed to inspire them, as they fired 43 shots on Isles goalie Semyon Varlamov and took advantage of what appeared to be a weary New York club playing the second of back-to-back games.
Buffalo was stymied by Varlamov throughout the first and most of the second period, but Jeff Skinner’s one-timer late in the middle frame appeared to break New York’s will. Goals from Mattias Samuelsson and Dylan Cozens added the Sabres lead, while Noah Dobson scored late in regulation to spoil Eric Comrie’s shutout bid.
Here are three takeaways from Buffalo’s 3-1 victory over the Islanders:
Comrie Had Calming Effect
The Sabres went to Comrie with Devon Levi dealing with a minor lower-body injury and the veteran backup was steady and did not allow the Islanders to break Buffalo’s will with a momentum-changing goal while Varlamov was single-handedly keeping New York in the game.
"We had so many chances, credit to their goalie, he was phenomenal. We had a lot of changes and I thought 'we're gonna start scoring on those chances." Comrie said. "We started to frustrate them, I think they thought that because we're young and we were missing chances that maybe we would stop playing our game and like maybe cheat a little more to get some more offense because we weren't really getting rewarded, but instead we did the opposite. We just kept with our game, kept doing what we're supposed to be doing and I think we got rewarded for that."
Successful Shuffle
The new line combinations put together by Don Granato worked very well. Shifting Casey Mittelstadt between Alex Tuch and Jeff Skinner resulted in the Sabres first two goals (including Mattias Samuelsson’s game-winner), and the Jordan Greenway -Tage Thompson – Dylan Cozens line added an insurance marker early in the second.
Tuch Stands Up For Skinner
The turning point of the game came at the midway point, with the Sabres pressing in the Islanders zone, defenseman Adam Pelech stepped into Skinner and appeared to connect knee-on-knee with the Buffalo forward. Linemate Alex Tuch quickly responded and dropped the gloves with Pelech, soundly thrashing the New York blueliner.
"(Alex) jumped in there in defense of (Skinner), saw something he didn't like, it was awesome," Granato said. "It shows that our guys were very dialed in."
Buffalo will finish off their four-game homestand on Monday when they take on their Atlantic Division rival, the Montreal Canadiens.
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