The Buffalo Sabres knew they had a prime opportunity to bust out of their goal-scoring slump and did just that in a 4-2 win over the Calgary Flames on Monday.
With the Flames playing their second game in two days, the Sabres reached three goals for the first time in 11 games since a 3-1 win in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on Oct. 30.
Kyle Okposo, Johan Larsson, Matt Moulson and Marcus Foligno scored for Buffalo, who won consecutive games for just the second time this season.
Photo: AP
“I just think it’s huge getting four goals,” Okposo said. “That’s a team that’s coming off a back-to-back, and if we played well we thought that we could get those two points and we did that. We executed our game plan and were able to get two big points.”
The Flames took a 1-0 lead into the second period, but the Sabres answered with three goals in a span of 101 seconds in the second.
Penalties to Dougie Hamilton and Troy Brouwer at 10 minutes, 2 seconds gave the Sabres a five-on-three advantage, which they converted into a pair of goals.
First, Okposo took a pass from Sam Reinhart and fired a wrist-shot into the back of the net. On the Sabres’ next shot, Larsson redirected Evander Kane’s wrist-shot between the legs of Flames goalie Brian Elliott.
Buffalo were not finished. Brouwer took another penalty with 7:04 remaining in the second and Moulson cashed in with his sixth power-play goal of the season, giving him a share of the league lead in power-play goals.
“It’s a lot of goals in a short amount of time for our team,” Sabres coach Dan Bylsma said.
Flames rookie Matthew Tkachuk scored 22 seconds into the third to cut the Sabres’ lead, but Buffalo answered two minutes later when Foligno slid a backhand-shot behind a sprawling Elliott.
Tkachuk had a goal and an assist and Mikael Backlund also scored for Calgary, who were coming off a 3-2 win in Detroit, Michigan, on Sunday.
Buffalo got two assists each from Reinhart and Taylor Fedun, who now has four assists in three games since being called up from the AHL.
Robin Lehner had 29 saves for the Sabres, while Elliott turned away 28 shots. Elliott has allowed 22 goals and is 0-6 in his past six starts for the Flames.
Calgary’s six penalties were their most in a game since they had eight penalties in a 4-2 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Oct. 20.
“It was everything,” Tkachuk said. “We did everything wrong tonight. We put ourselves in a bad position to kill too much tonight.”
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