OTTAWA – The Buffalo Sabres’ recent victories – Tuesday’s 5-2 win over the Senators was their second straight and fifth in their last six games – come with a caveat. They fell out of playoff contention long ago, meaning the contests, at least standings-wise, are meaningless.
The pressure has been off the Sabres for weeks. Playing looser surely helps them.
Still, these wins illustrate coach Lindy Ruff’s message is sinking in. While it took months, they’re starting to develop more of an identity.
The Sabres, whose penchant months ago for imploding and blowing multi-goal leads helped sink their season, closed out another game Tuesday in hostile territory.
The Sabres led 2-0 after the first period thanks, in part, to three early penalty kills. After taking three-goal leads in the second and third periods, the Senators quickly answered each time, getting back in the game.
But the Sabres scored a short-handed empty-net goal to put the game out of reach and sweep the season series from the Senators (4-0-0) before a crowd of 16,446 fans in the Canadian Tire Centre.
The victory moved the Sabres out of the Eastern Conference basement past the Boston Bruins and into 15th place.
“I think we’re locked into a better style,” Ruff said of why the Sabres have been finishing off more games. “We’re not giving up the crazy chances. I think the managing the puck has been better, I think inside the zone a lot more aggressive. We’re locked into how we feel we need to finish the game.”
For winger Tage Thompson, who scored his 39th goal in the second period to briefly put the Sabres up 3-0, performances like Tuesday’s offer some hope.
“You have to be on your toes right now because there’s maybe not as much pressure, the games aren’t as important as far as points for playoffs or whatever,” he said. “There is that lack of fear, which is the way you need to play all the time. The fact we are closing these games right now and winning against good teams gives you the confidence that you know you can do it.
“That’s something you need to carry into the remaining games and into the summer, moving into next season. Start from Day One and have that confidence that you can close out these games against good teams.”
Center Peyton Krebs, who scored in the third period to restore the Sabres’ three-goal lead, said a team buy-in has helped them plow forward and notch victories.
“I think we’ve been … emphasizing those little details as a group,” he said after the Sabres closed their three-game road trip. “For us to be a good team, we got to close out these games. Early in the year, we weren’t doing that, and that’s a good step in the right direction.”
Fresh off Sunday afternoon’s 8-5 win over the Washington Capitals, the Sabres pounced on the Senators, who own the Eastern Conference’s first wild card spot.
Winger Alex Tuch opened the scoring 8:38 into the game, converting defenseman Mattias Samuelsson’s rebound in front of goalie Linus Ullmark, who couldn’t find the puck.
Captain Rasmus Dahlin made it 2-0 at 11:51, scoring after winger Jack Quinn won a puck battle and fed him at the point.
The Sabres, of course, were lucky to escape the first period up two goals.
“Our best players played like three minutes because we had six minutes of penalty-killing time, and that always hurts,” Ruff said. “Again, we’ve talked about discipline. Discipline wasn’t good enough in the first period. …
“If you want to be a consistent winning road team, you don’t take those in the visiting building.”
Thompson buried linemate JJ Peterka’s pass at the net 12:36 into the second period before Ottawa’s Claude Giroux scored 50 seconds later.
Sabres center Tyson Kozak left the game with a lower-body injury after Giroux’s goal. Ruff did not have an update on the rookie.
After Krebs intercepted old friend Dylan Cozens’ pass and beat Ullmark at 9:59, Jake Sanderson scored 23 seconds later.
Then center Ryan McLeod’s empty-net goal sealed the Sabres’ 32nd win this season.
Sabres goalie James Reimer made 33 saves, winning his fifth straight start. Reimer, a veteran backup, has started six of the last eight games in place of an ineffective Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.
“He’s reading plays well, he’s making key saves,” Ruff said of Reimer. “I thought … we got a little bit loose at the end, like in the last maybe five minutes where we got caught on a couple of long shifts. But he was there.”
