BUFFALO – In these parts, there are rarely normal games. The Sabres, you see, often make things interesting. They like to do things differently.
In beating the Carolina Hurricanes 4-2 on Wednesday, they took a 3-0 lead into the third period before gutting out a much-needed win despite recording zero shots on goal in the final 20 minutes.
How did the Sabres score late without the benefit of a shot? Well, as center Ryan McLeod was about bury an easy empty-net goal to seal the victory and complete his hat trick, Brent Burns raced back and slashed his stick, breaking it.
While the puck did not enter the net, the referee awarded the goal. The official scorer originally credited Tage Thompson – McLeod zoomed down the ice after his linemate’s long shot hit the post – before changing it to McLeod and back to Thompson.
McLeod finally earned final credit for the goal long after the game ended, giving him his first career hat trick.
Incredibly, the Sabres became the first team to score in a 20-minute period without registering a shot since the NHL began tracking shots in 1965.
McCleod gets the hat trick. An automatic goal after Brent Burns slashed his stick on an empty net, 4-2 #sabrehood #raiseup pic.twitter.com/GoSMNL2Mg1
— Buffalo Hockey Moments (@SabresPlays) January 16, 2025
Yes, it can be argued the Sabres escaped and eked out a win. Still, despite being outshot 8-0 in the third period, unlike other games this season, they kept their composure.
“We … had to make it interesting there and nerve-wracking, but we found a way,” said center Dylan Cozens, who scored the Sabres’ second goal. “We kept it simple in the third period, we just wanted to get all pucks going north and limit the turnovers and just keep putting pucks in behind and try not to give them any room.”
Remember, the Sabres have blown six multi-goal leads and lost, including on Saturday afternoon, when they led 2-0 and fell 6-2 to the Seattle Kraken. In that embarrassing defeat, they allowed four goals in the third period.
So Wednesday’s third period illustrates significant progress.
“We were defending well, we were boxing out well, we were taking care of rebounds,” said Sabres goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, who made 35 saves, including 18 in the third period. “I feel like it looked better than it was.”
The Sabres generated more offense in the third period than their goose egg on the score sheet might indicate.
“I thought our intentions were good,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “We didn’t have shots, but we had two breakaways, we had a two-on-one, we had (Rasmus) Dahlin walk in (and he) didn’t shoot.
“There was lots of good opportunities to get the puck on the net.”
Cozens said grinding out the win helps the Sabres clear a mental hurdle.
“We’ve struggled to close out games in the past, so, obviously, you’re a little nervous,” he said. “But we had a meeting and talked about how, if we give one up, just keep that confidence. It’s fine, teams give up goals, and not to change anything. We found a way.”
The Sabres, believe it or not, pushed late before the crowd of 13,449 fans in KeyBank Center. After Martin Necas scored at 16:50 to narrow it to 3-2, Ruff called timeout.
“We called a timeout and just said, ‘We got to go,’” Ruff said. “… I told them that, ‘Listen, we’ve talked about this and we’ve gone over it, just go, just go.’”
McLeod said “that timeout really calmed us down.”
The Sabres never trailed in the game, taking a 1-0 lead at the 43-second mark when McLeod beat old friend Dustin Tokarski on their first shot.
Cozens made it 2-0 8:18 into the second period before McLeod charged to the net after winning a faceoff and scored at 19:56.
Jaccob Slavin scored 3:45 into the period to get the Hurricanes going.
With the top trio of Cozens, Thompson and Jason Zucker struggling, Ruff put McLeod on the No. 1 line and moved Cozens between JJ Peterka and Alex Tuch.
McLeod, who has scored 10 goals this season, seized his opportunity.
“I think you look at that goal at the end of the period, that turns out to be a real big goal for us, to get into the third,” Ruff said. “It … worked out pretty well for us.”
The victory was the Sabres’ sixth in their last 10 tries. They’ve been winning games. They often play so poorly in their defeats it just feels like they’ve constantly been losing.
They moved within nine points of the Columbus Blue Jackets for the second wild card spot.
“Nobody’s going to help us out of it,” Luukkonen said of the Sabres’ last-place standing in the Eastern Conference.” So it’s up to us. It doesn’t matter what the other teams are doing, if they’re winning or losing. In the end, it’s up to us.”
