Casey Mittelstadt scored 1:18 into overtime to give the Buffalo Sabres a 4-3 victory over the visiting Ottawa Senators on Thursday night.
Mittelstadt, who also had an assist, ripped a wrist shot from the edge of the right circle off the far post and in for his 14th goal of the season.
The Sabres then immediately raced down to mug 41-year-old goaltender Craig Anderson, who made 30 saves for his 319th career win and is likely to retire at the end of the season.
Tage Thompson scored his 47th goal of the season, Jeff Skinner had three assists and Henri Jokiharju and Victor Olofsson also scored for Buffalo (41-33-7, 89 points) which improved to 8-2-1 over its last 11 games and clinched a fifth-place finish in the Atlantic Division. The Sabres finish their season with a game at Columbus on Friday.
Tim Stutzle had a goal and an assist and Dylan Gambrell and Claude Giroux also scored goals for Ottawa, which finished the season with a 39-35-8 record and 86 points. Mads Sogaard made 32 saves.
Buffalo scored twice in the span of 2:03 early in the second period to take a 2-0 lead. Jokiharju scored the first with a wrist shot from the top of the right circle that hit Sogaard in the glove and bounced in for his third goal. Olofsson followed with his 27th goal when he tapped in a rebound of a Kyle Okposo shot into an open left side of the net.
Stutzle cut it to 2-1 with a power-play goal, one-timing a Jake Sanderson pass from the right faceoff dot over Anderson’s glove for his 39th goal.
Gambrell tied it less than two minutes later with a slap shot from the high slot past a screen and through Anderson’s pads.
Giroux then gave Ottawa its first lead, 3-2, when Brady Tkachuk’s crossing pass from the left circle deflected in off his left skate for his career-best 35th goal.
Thompson tied it, 3-3, at the 3:03 mark of the third period with a power-play goal, one-timing a Skinner pass from the slot inside the left post.
Buffalo had a good chance to win it with 1:15 to go in regulation when Okposo spilt a pair of defenders and then fired a backhand shot that caromed off the crossbar.
–Field Level Media
