BUFFALO – A few years ago, Sabres winger Jack Quinn retired the slick shootout move – a nifty fake in the slot that freezes the goalie – he often utilized early in his pro career.
Goalies study their opponents and assemble a book on their tendencies, so Quinn has developed into one of the NHL’s premier shooters by evolving and showcasing other dazzling moves.
But a move that good shouldn’t be mothballed, right?
After dusting it off to score the winner in Saturday’s come-from-behind 3-2 shootout win over the Seattle Kraken, he acknowledged he had been thinking about bringing it back.
He said some teammates also encouraged him to break it out again.
“I’ve had it in the back of my mind,” Quinn said after the Sabres ended their three-game losing streak. “I’ve done that one a few times, but not in a couple years. So the guys wanted me to bring it back out, so I did.”
Quinn did in the second round of the shootout, after Sabres center Tage Thompson scored and goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen stopped Freddy Gaudreau.
Just like his early days as a pro with the Rochester Americans and in his rookie season here, Quinn skated down the right wing and cut the slot before faking a shot and forcing Seattle goalie Philipp Grubauer to commit.
Quinn tucked the puck past a lunging Grubauer as he fell to the ice to complete the goal.
“Every goalie probably has a book on him now,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “That goalie’s probably watched him do probably what he anticipated was might gonna happen. I thought unbelievable move by him.”
Luukkonen then stopped Kaapo Kakko to secure the Sabres’ 45th win this season. They’re 5-0 in the shootout.
Quinn has converted nine of his 14 career shootout chances, a 64.3 percent success rate that ranks first in Sabres history among players with five or more attempts. That gaudy shooting percentage is tied for the third highest among NHL players with 10 or more attempts.
Jack Quinn shootout winner #LetsGoBuffalo #Sabrehood #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/VMs5hgicWW
— Buffalo Hockey Moments (@SabresPlays) March 29, 2026
The Sabres’ shootout exploits capped a night in KeyBank Center in which they erased a two-goal deficit and ended their longest skid (0-1-2) in nearly four months.
They plowed through an odd game – for example, some blatant penalties went uncalled and center Sam Carrick hit two posts on one shot – to defeat the Kraken at home for the first time ever.
In the second period, after Carrick appeared to tie the game at 1, Seattle’s Bobby McMann made it 2-0 at 13:18. Chandler Stephenson opened the scoring 12:42 into the game.
“I think it’s that time of year where you have to be ready,” Ruff said. “It’s stressful, it’s unpredictable, you can get good calls, you can get bad calls, you can get borderline calls against you. There’s a lot of stuff you’ve got to fight through. I thought our guys did.
“They stayed together, the bench was good and they just kept talking about getting back in the game.”
They stayed in it thanks to Luukkonen, who covered up his teammates’ gaffes and looked sharp while stopping 32 shots.
“We got a heck of a night from our goaltender, because I thought defensively, we made some big mistakes,” Ruff said. “We put them in position to probably score four or five, but I thought UPL was really good for us.”
The Sabres got going when captain Rasmus Dahlin scored a power-play goal 15:55 into the second period. Winger Peyton Krebs tied it 11:39 into the third, setting the stage for a fun finale before the capacity crowd of 19,070 fans.
“I think it was kind of a big thing for the team tonight to show and play some better hockey,” Luukkonen said. “Not necessarily that we’ve been playing bad, but we’ve been slipping lately. Just proving to ourselves again that sticking to our own game plan, and I think from the first period on we were on top of the game tonight.”
Notes: Dahlin’s goal was his 100th in the NHL. … The Sabres are 8-1-3 in the second game of a back-to-back set. … The Sabres have sold out 14 straight games.
