The visiting Vegas Golden Knights are coming off a win while the Buffalo Sabres are in a downward spiral going into their game Saturday afternoon.
The Golden Knights defeated the host Columbus Blue Jackets 4-0 on Thursday night and the Sabres fell 7-3 on the road to the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday.
Vegas goaltender Adin Hill made 27 saves on Thursday in his fourth shutout of the season and 11th career. Fourteen of the saves came in the first period.
“‘Hiller’ played amazing for us.’ I think anytime he’s going to shut the door like that, it gives you confidence, even when you don’t have your legs as a team,” said the Golden Knights’ Brandon Saad, who had a goal and an assist. “… After the first, I thought we tightened it up and clogged the middle.”
Hill, 28, was rewarded Friday with a six-year contract extension worth $37.5 million.
Coach Bruce Cassidy also liked the way his team played defensively after the opening period.
“We didn’t allow them to come through the neutral zone,” he said.
Nicolas Roy also had a goal and an assist and Pavel Dorofeyev and defenseman Alex Pietrangelo scored goals for Vegas, which had lost its previous two games. Tomas Hertl had two assists.
Columbus had the first eight shots of the game. Roy’s power-play goal with eight minutes left in the first period was Vegas’ first shot of the game.
Former Sabre Jack Eichel set up Roy for the goal. It was Eichel’s 59th assist and 79th point, which broke the franchise record for points in a season. William Karlsson had 78 in 2017-18, the Golden Knights’ inaugural season. The assist also extended Eichel’s point streak to seven games (one goal and nine assists for 10 points).
Saad’s goal, with 59 seconds left in the opening period, came on his second rebound shot attempt. They were Vegas’ first two even-strength shots of the contest. The Golden Knights’ previous shots in the period came on Roy’s power-play goal and while killing a four-minute Blue Jackets’ power play late in the first. It was Saad’s third goal in his last four games.
Dorofeyev’s goal was his 26th.
Buffalo has lost seven of his last eight.
The seven goals allowed in Detroit matched a season-high total for the Sabres.
“Some of the D-zone turnovers — it’s hard to recover from a couple of the plays we made,” coach Lindy Ruff said. “Frustrating, for sure.”
Tage Thompson and Zach Benson had a goal and an assist each and Josh Norris scored his first goal for Buffalo since being acquired from the Ottawa Senators at the trade deadline last week. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen stopped 22 of 29 shots.
“You can’t take nights off and you can’t get away from the way everyone needs to play,” Norris said. “You all need to be on the same page and you can’t give teams chances, especially high-end teams. We’re going to have to look at some video, but at the end of the day, it’s just about compete, and playing the right way.”
Thompson’s goal was his 34th to go along with 24 assists for 58 points. He leads the Sabres in goals and points.
–Field Level Media
