Oooh, ahhh, Sabres on the warpath.
Oooh, ahhh, Sabres on the warpath.
The Buffalo Sabres are for real.
On Saturday afternoon in Buffalo, the Sabres defeated the New Jersey Devils 4-3 in overtime.
Ullmark has earned points in five straight games (3-0-2) since his father passed away unexpectedly on January 18 while the Sabres were playing in Philadelphia. The Sabres have had four out of five games go to overtime for the first time since November 23 to 30, 2018.
Linus Ullmark's last five starts have been fantastic pic.twitter.com/CvrwKPD12E
— SabresBuzz (@SabresBuzz) January 30, 2021
Ullmark's stellar play has catapulted the Sabres into to playoff echelon of teams in the East Division.
#Sabres on the warpath @BuffaloSabres pic.twitter.com/n1UPumO056
— SabresBuzz (@SabresBuzz) January 30, 2021
Sabres captain Jack Eichel, who took a puck off the face and was forced to miss a big chunk of playing time in the third period, showed moxy by shaking off the pain and returning to score the shootout winner.
The home team has now won the last six meetings between the Sabres and Devils.
Linus Ullmark, starting his fifth straight game, stopped all three Devils shooters in the shootout. Ullmark improved his record to 2-1 with nine saves on 10 attempts this season. Stop and think about it. Ullmark has stopped 90% of the shootout attempts he has faced this season.
The Sabres are building a valuable snowy day fund with all of the points that Ullmark has accumulated this season. The OT and shootout points earned in January may well end up being the ticket to Buffalo’s first playoff berth in ten years.
Ullmark’s sizzling .857 SV% ranks second all-time among NHL goaltenders with at least 20 shots faced and first among active goalies. Johan Holmqvist (Tampa Bay Lightning 2006-2008) is ranked first at .865 SV%.
Eric Staal scored for the third time in five games. His 439th career goal puts him ahead of Gary Roberts (438) and moves him to 68th on the NHL’s all-time list. His next goal will tie Rick Tocchet for 67th.
The goal was Staal’s 1,026th career point, breaking a tie with Patrik Elias for 82nd-most in NHL history. He is two points behind Brian Leetch for 81st.
Victor Olofsson scored his team-leading fourth goal of the season on the power play. Olofsson now has 3 PPG this season. Olofsson’s 16 career power play goals trail only Leon Draisaitl and David Pastrnak (20 each) for the most PPG in the NHL since he made his debut on March 28, 2019.
Olofsson has totaled five points (4+1) in three career meetings with the Devils. Jack Eichel joined Jake Guentzel as one of two players to score two shootout goals this season. He is the first NHL player to score two game-deciding goals in 2020-21.
With two assists against the Devils on Saturday, Taylor Hall now has 3 goals and 6 assists in eight career games against his former team.
Cody Eakin added his first point as a member of the Sabres with his assist on Tobias Rieder’s goal.
Rasmus Dahlin assisted on Olofsson’s goal.
The same two teams will tangle Sunday afternoon at 1:00pm in Buffalo.