BUFFALO – Two days before Sabres goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen’s splendid 33-save outing in Saturday’s 4-3 shootout win, coach Lindy Ruff acknowledged the Finn, having recently missed so much time, likely wasn’t ready to be a big difference-maker.
Luukkonen, who on Saturday made just his second NHL start this season and first in a week, has spent most of the last two months battling two lower-body injuries.
In his absence, veteran Alex Lyon quickly emerged as arguably the Sabres’ biggest early-season surprise while shouldering a heavy workload, and rookie Colten Ellis played well in his only outing.
The Sabres, of course, expect Luukkonen will eventually grab the No. 1 job back. Still, they want to be realistic.
Counting a conditioning start in the minors, he has played just three games in the last six and a half months.
It might take weeks or longer before he feels like his old self. Or perhaps, as Saturday’s contest illustrated, he’s ahead of schedule.
After allowing two goals in the opening 2:15 – his teammates hung him out to dry both times – Luukkonen settled in nicely, stopping 29 of the last 30 shots he faced, including five in overtime.
“His start has nothing to do with his game,” said Ruff, whose Sabres ended a bizarre streak of three consecutive overtime losses by 4-3 scores. “It had to do with our game, our group. We tried to come with pressure. They beat our pressure, and when they beat our pressure, we gave them a couple great looks. There’s a couple 50-50 pucks that if we would’ve won, we would’ve create something.”
In the shootout, Luukkonen stopped all five attempts. Following Sabres defenseman Bowen Byram’s goal in the top of the fifth, he stymied Ryan Leonard to end the Sabres’ losing streak.
Luukkonen’s first NHL win since April should boost his confidence. While he did not want to take too much credit, he clearly needed a performance like Saturday’s before a capacity crowd of 19,070 fans in KeyBank Center.
“I think the biggest thing is just to win; that’s what we’re here to do, that’s the biggest thing for our team,” he said. “You don’t want to go too long not winning a game, or questioning your own game.”
Ruff said Luukkonen “was really dialed in.”
“He just looked comfortable,” he said. “Made some great saves and coming off camp, the only little bit of playing time in the one game, probably didn’t really know what to expect. But I thought he got in a pretty good rhythm.”
Luukkonen found a rhythm, in part, because the Sabres settled down. Fifteen seconds after Aliaksei Protas made it 2-0, Sabres center Tage Thompson scored.
“I think that was a big thing,” Luukkonen said. “We kind of kept the gas pedal down, even though they scored two. We kind of kept the offense going. Nobody backed down, even though it wasn’t the start we wanted.”
Winger Alex Tuch tied it at 10:02 before winger Isak Rosen’s first NHL goal 18:45 into the contest gave the Sabres their first lead.
Only Sonny Milano’s tip in front of Luukkonen 19:17 into the second period got by him following the ugly start.
Incredibly, Byram, who beat goalie Charlie Lindgren from the edge of the slots, had never participated in an NHL shootout.
What was Byram’s plan?
“I didn’t really have one,” he said. “I was just going to see what happened.”
Ruff said he chose Byram based on the shootout reps players take in practice.
“It got down to several guys that we had on the list, and I had to choose between a couple,” he said.
The Sabres have a six-game point streak. After losing their first three contests, they have earned at least one point in eight or the last nine games.
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Rosen, 22, enjoyed the best night of his 16-game NHL career, looking confident while skating a career-high 14 minutes, 44 seconds, mostly at left wing alongside center Jiri Kulich and Jack Quinn. He also played on the top power-play unit.
The Swede beat Lindgren from the right circle after Quinn gave him a nifty backhand feed.
“Just a great play by Quinner, great pass,” Rosen said. “Yeah, just finally went in. Yeah, really good feeling, of course, probably the best feeling ever, to be honest. It was great.”
Rosen, the 14th overall pick on 2021, never stood out much during previous recalls.
Clearly, he continued the torrid five-goal, 12-point start he had with the Rochester Americans before the Sabres recalled him to replaced injured winger Zach Benson.
“I think I came in feeling confident, so just trying to play my game, and that is to move my feet,” Rosen said.
Ruff said confidence was the biggest difference in Rosen’s game.
“He skated well,” he said. “He’s really played well down there, and he’s coming up here, knowing that we’re going to give him a good opportunity, use him on the power play.”
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The Sabres performed dynamically in killing three power plays in the third period.
“I don’t think our penalty killers gave up a scoring chance, and that’s how good they were,” Ruff said. “I thought our clears were excellent. I thought (Mattias) Samuelson was a beast all night when it comes to the killing and blocking shots.”
