Ryan McLeod collected a goal and two assists to help lift the host Buffalo Sabres to a 5-4 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday in the regular-season finale for both teams.
The win was the 900th in the coaching career of Buffalo bench boss Lindy Ruff, who became the fifth NHL coach to achieve that milestone.
Alex Tuch, Jack Quinn and JJ Peterka scored one goal and set up another, Peyton Krebs also tallied and James Reimer made 21 saves for the Sabres (36-39-7, 79 points).
Philadelphia rookie Matvei Michkov scored twice to boost his team-leading goal total to 26 on the season. He also had an assist.
Tyson Foerster scored his ninth goal in his last nine games and added an assist. Bobby Brink also had a goal and an assist and Aleksei Kolosov turned aside 26 shots for the Flyers (33-39-10, 76 points).
Peterka converted a two-on-one rush at 1:24 of the second period to stake Buffalo to a 4-1 lead before Philadelphia began to chip away.
Michkov, who scored from the high slot with 4:51 remaining in the first period, tapped home a loose puck from the doorstep at 7:11 of the second.
Foerster redirected Noah Cates’ centering feed past Reimer to trim the Sabres’ lead to 4-3 just 15 seconds into the third period. Reimer, however, denied Flyers captain Sean Couturier from point-blank range to preserve the slim advantage with 11:38 remaining in the period.
McLeod scored into an empty net with 48 seconds remaining in the third period. The goal proved important as Brink tallied for the Flyers with 19 seconds left.
Jason Zucker feathered a cross-slot centering feed that Tuch directed home to open the scoring at 4:35 of the season. Tuch’s goal was his career high-tying 36th of the season, while Zucker’s assist was his career-best 32nd of the campaign.
Krebs converted on a breakaway to double the advantage at 13:49 of the first period. The goal was Krebs’ career-high 10th of the season.
Quinn answered Michkov’s first goal by burying a nifty centering feed from McLeod following an odd-man rush just 62 seconds later to give Buffalo a 3-1 lead.
–Field Level Media
