BUFFALO – You must go back more than three months – 97 days and 38 games, to be exact – to find the last time the Sabres lost two consecutive contests in regulation.
A heck of lot has gone into their stunning 30-6-2 run that has vaulted them into first place in the Atlantic Division. They’ve excelled in essentially every facet of the game.
Their ability to quickly bounce back and handle the mental gymnastics that often accompany losses stands at the forefront.
“You look at it, we’re 9-1 in the last 10,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said following Saturday’s 3-2 shootout win over the Toronto Maple Leafs, “and if we lose tonight you go, ‘Well, we’ve lost two in a row. There’s two different ways of looking at it.”
The Sabres looked at Thursday’s 2-1 loss, a game in which the Washington Capitals scored the go-ahead goal with 93 seconds left in the third period, as a lost opportunity.
The end of their eight-game win streak, goalie Alex Lyon said, left them feeling sour for 48 hours.
“We got to take things personal,” he said after making 16 saves and stopping both shootout attempts against the Maple Leafs.
For Ruff, Lyon’s words and the Sabres’ response “tells you a lot about our maturity.”
“We gave (Washington) a point and we took a point away from ourselves with how we played in that last situation,” he said.
When they encountered the same situation Saturday – a tie game in the waning minutes of regulation – the Sabres ran out the clock before shootout goals from wingers Jack Quinn and Alex Tuch secured their 41st victory this season.
“You lose one in regulation, and those are the games when doubt can creep in,” Lyon said. “You just have to grind through it. We’re going to get tested so much more throughout the rest of the season.”
Down the stretch, of course, the Sabres will almost certainly play more tight games like Saturday’s.
“You’re going to see more games that are 1-1 or 2-2,” Ruff said. “Every team is screaming about we have to be better defensively.”
The Sabres clamped down defensively in the third period before the capacity crowd of 19,070 fans, limiting the Maple Leafs to just two shots on goal. In overtime, Lyon stopped the only shot he faced, a breakaway attempt from Easton Cowan.
“I feel like he makes so many big-time saves,” Quinn said of Lyon. “So he settles us in there and kind of lets us play our game.
After overtime, Quinn, a shootout stud, scored his eighth career goal in 13 attempts, utilizing his wicked wrist shot to beat goalie Joseph Woll under the right arm. He has converted three of his four chances this season.
“He has a lot of moves, he has a lot of confidence … and he’s got a hell of a shot,” Ruff said.
Quinn also scored a power-play goal 11:21 into the second period, converting a nifty pass from rookie Noah Ostlund in the left circle to tie the game.
Ostlund created Quinn’s career-high 16th goal by feeding him a no-look backhand pass from the side of the crease.
“Just an all-world pass from him,” Quinn said. “… I feel like he’s a pretty crafty player, so kind of always expecting him to find you out there.”
Ruff said Ostlund possesses “great hockey sense.”
“He makes a lot of good plays under duress for a first-year guy,” he said. “And he has confidence. When he’s in his own end, he has confidence to make the small play that tells you that the pressure of the game isn’t getting to him that he’s not just going to throw it out somewhere. Nine times out of 10 he’s going to make the right play.”
Sabres defenseman Owen Power opened the scoring 2:01 into the game before goals from Dakota Joshua and Max Domi put Toronto ahead by the 53-second mark of the second period.
Notes: Sabres defenseman Luke Schenn, who has been playing alongside Logan Stanley, his partner earlier this season before the Winnipeg Jets sent them to Buffalo together, fought Dakota Joshua in the first period. … With defenseman Mattias Samuelsson out with an undisclosed injury, rookie Zach Metsa moved back into the lineup, skating alongside captain Rasmus Dahlin. “I thought we got a real good game,” Ruff said. “Maybe one mistake. He deserves to be in the lineup for how well he’s played.” … The Sabres also scratched winger Tanner Pearson (lower body), goalie Colten Ellis (undisclosed injury) and defenseman Michael Kesselring and center Josh Dunne (both healthy). … The Sabres, who closed a five-game home-stand, begin a five-game road trip Tuesday against the Vegas Golden Knights. … The Maple Leafs played without superstar Auston Matthews, who suffered a Grade 3 MCL tear and a quad tear Thursday. His season is over.
