Productive offensive-zone shifts and promising scoring chances had come up empty throughout Friday’s loss and in the later stages of Wednesday’s at Pittsburgh. But the Sabres trusted their getting bodies and pucks to the net, which they continued against the Wild, would eventually pay off.
“We’ve got to find a way to score more dirty goals, and tonight we scored two of the dirtier ones that you can find,” Doan said. “But I think that’s something you’re gonna see from us moving forward. We’ve got a good team off the rush, but we’ve got to find a way to create secondary scoring off of bounces and loose pucks and building walls off the back post. I think (if) we can do that, we can continue to score a little bit more and produce a little more offense.”
Nothing has come easily for the Sabres away from KeyBank Center, and Saturday was yet another closely contested road game. Those bounces helped, of course, but Buffalo did the work to take advantage of them and collect two much-needed points.
“On the road against a good team, a team that was on a roll, we played the game the right way all night,” Ruff said. “We had a lot of good opportunities that didn’t go in, but by playing the game the right way, we finally caught a break.”
Here’s more from the shootout win.