The Buffalo Sabres haven't won three straight overtime games since their glory days in 2006.
All things old are indeed new again for Jack Eichel and his Buffalo Sabres.
For the third time in their past three games. the Buffalo Sabres closed the show in overtime.
On Tuesday night in Nashville, Jack Eichel willed his team to another OT victory by taking the puck from Robin Lehner and Taylor Fedun from inside his D-zone and slowly building his speed to blow by a Predator forward who was skating backwards through the neutral zone. Eichel hit the after burners at the neutral zone, drove the middle and ripped home a powerful wrister to put the wraps on a dramatic a 5-4 comeback win for the Buffalo Defibrilators.
With three wins in a row, the Sabres now have 49 points and are only four points out of a wild card.
It was shades of Sabres Hall Of Famer Gilbert Perreault taking pucks coast to coast to embarrass enemy goalies.
Jack Eichel's OT winner at 2:35 of the 3v3 session improved the Buffalo's record to 19-7-2 (.714) in his career when he scores.
The Sabres are now 15-3-1 (.816) when Eichel has 2 or more points in a game.
Eichel scored two goals in Nashville to give him 12 for the season.
The Sabres are now 7-3-1 ever since he called out himself, his teammates and coaches after the Sabres were skunked in back to back games by the Boston Bruins on December 29 and 31. Eichel challenged his teammates to get their collective attitude right and to compete harder inside games.
Zemgus Girgensons, Brian Gionta and Kyle Okposo also scored for Buffalo, which has won three straight.
James Neal, Filip Forsberg, Cody McLeod and Viktor Arvidsson scored for the Predators, who had their three-game winning streak snapped. Calle Jarnkrok had two assists.
The Sabres could have quit and run to their locker room when trailing 4-2 late in the third period after Viktor Arvidsson gave the Predators a 3-2 lead at 5:08 of the third period on the power play.
Then, James Neal gave the Predators a 4-2 lead at 10:17 of the third period on a one-timer from the slot.
Down by two goals, Buffalo clicked their chin straps and committed to driving through Juuse Saros' crease. Buffalo applied heavy puck pressure which created zone time. The Preds made coverage mistakes that ended up costing them. Big time.
Saros finished with 32 saves against Eichel and the Sabres,
Nashville held a 4-2 lead late in the third period before Brian Gionta scored to make it 4-3 at 14:10 of the third period. Zemgus Girgensons sent a a cross-box pass to Gionta, who had a wide open net because Saros could not get over to quick enough to contest the shot. It was Gionta's 11th goal of the season.
Moments later, Kyle Okposo scored his 15th goal of the season to tie the game 4-4 with 1:05 remaining in regulation.
Then, with Sabres goaltender Robin Lehner pulled for an extra skater, Okposo tipped home a pass from Samson Reinhart with 1:05 remaining tin regulation to force OT for the third straight game.
At the lonely end of the rink, Robin Lehner stopped 35 shots for the Sabres.
The Preds drew first blood Filip Forsberg scored off a shorthanded two on one breakaway.
Zemgus Girgensons tied it 1-1 at 12:12 of the second.
At 17:28 on Cody McLeod scored to give the Preds a 2-1 lead.
The scored was tied 2-2 after Eichel scored with 17.4 seconds remaining in the second period.
Buffalo is 9-3-2 against Western Conference teams this season.
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Sabres defenseman Dmitry Kulikov returned to the lineup after missing 12 games with a back injury.
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