McLeod, Norris lines fuel offense<\/p>\n
The winning streak has allowed for consistency in Buffalo\u2019s forward lines, which have remained relatively stagnant since the team\u2019s win in Seattle on Dec. 14 (with the exception of Josh Dunne replacing Tyson Kozak, who is out with an injury).<\/p>\n
All four lines have had their moments within the streak \u2013 and all have been trusted to play in a variety of situations. Two were particularly impactful in St. Louis: the trio of Ostlund, Norris and Tuch contributed two goals while the line of Benson, Ryan McLeod and Jack Quinn had a dominant night in the offensive zone.<\/p>\n
Tuch helped force the first-period turnover that paved the way for Ostlund\u2019s goal. Norris earned the primary assist on the play, his 12th point in the last 10 games.<\/p>\n
Norris later drove to the net on the rush that produced Tuch\u2019s tying goal in the second period.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re getting more opportunities,\u201d Tuch said. \u201cWe\u2019re understanding where each other are and we\u2019re just reading off each other and playing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The McLeod line, meanwhile, used its speed to create long shifts in the St. Louis end. The Sabres had a 21-5 advantage in shot attempts with the trio on the ice at 5-on-5, according to Natural Stat Trick, including Benson\u2019s winning goal. That play saw McLeod force a turnover on the forecheck and pass to Quinn, whose shot deflected toward Benson beside the net.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think tonight was a really good game from us,\u201d Benson said. \u201cWe were in the O-zone a lot. I think we\u2019re getting pucks below their goal line rather than try and make a cute play at the blue line.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"McLeod, Norris lines fuel offense The winning streak has allowed for consistency in Buffalo\u2019s forward lines, which have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-380589","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}