Snow Not Done as Avalanche Bury Sabres in Collapse

The Buffalo Sabres jumped out to a four-goal lead midway through the first period, but the Colorado Avalanche stormed back to win, 5-4. The Avalanche handed the Sabres their fourth straight loss. The defeat dropped Buffalo to 13th in the Eastern Conference.

Tage Thompson kicked off the initial excitement at KeyBank Center with a pair of goals at the 3:22 and 6:39 markers of the first period. JJ Peterka and Back Malenstyn each tacked on a goal, giving the Sabres the 4-0 lead 11:49 into the game. Avalanche goalie Alexandar Georgiev was pulled in favor of newly acquired Scott Wedgewood.

Wedgewood ended up perfect on 22 shots as Colorado battled back the rest of the game. Nathan MacKinnon scored in the second period to break the goose egg. Joel Kiviranta, Logan O’Connor, and MacKinnon notched goals to stun the Sabres just 7:39 into the third.

Artturi Lehkonen registered the eventual game-winner with 4:22 remaining, sending the crowd into a frenzy of boos.

The Good

The Sabres seemingly solved their goalscoring woes by scoring early and often in the first period. Tage Thompson scored for the first time in four games since returning from injury. He tacked on another for good measure.

Peterka also broke his eight-game goalless streak. Malenstyn, Peyton Krebs, and Nicolas Aube-Kubel were relentless all night and were Buffalo’s best line.

The Bad

Rasmus Dahlin played only the opening shift of the third, before leaving the game with back spasms. The Sabres proceeded to give up four goals in the period, blowing their comfortable lead.

“When you’re shorthanded, you’ve got to believe even more in your system,” head coach Lindy Ruff said. “You’ve got to manage the puck even better.”

The Sabres certainly failed to manage the puck well without their captain and leader on defense. Ruff confirmed that back spasms were the initial issue Dahlin was dealing with in training camp and the preseason. The lingering ailment has caused Dahlin to miss portions of practice as well.

The Ugly

The buzzword after the game for the Sabres was panic. The Avalanche have three of the best players in the world – Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, and Mikko Rantanen. When the trio started pouring it on, Buffalo couldn’t seem to settle things down.

“We got on the wrong side of the puck,” Ruff said. “There’s a time and a place. If you’re chasing the game…we weren’t chasing the game…we were running around in our end.”

The Sabres have one practice on Wednesday to cling things up before facing the NHL’s second-best team in the standings, the Winnipeg Jets.

“We’re gonna have to come in and we’re gonna have to work,” Alex Tuch said. “We’re gonna have to see some really crappy video tomorrow. We’re gonna have a tough meeting. We’re gonna have a tough skate.”