San Jose, Calif. (WGR Sports Radio 550) – So far, it has been a road trip for the ages from the Buffalo Sabres.

The Sabres have imposed their will on both of their opponents to start the Western road trip, with Thursday’s victim being the San Jose Sharks in a 5-0 victory at SAP Center.

After a scoreless period-and-a-half, the Sabres broke out in a monstrous way. In a span of just 1:43, the blue and gold turned a 0-0 contest into a 3-0 lead.

Noah Ostlund got things going by winning a race to a shot attempt off the end boards. He fired home the game’s opening goal and got the Sabres off and running in San Jose.

Just 36-seconds later, newcomer Sam Carrick doubled the Sabres’ fun. His wrist shot made it a 2-0 edge, and further stunned the teal-colored crowd at SAP Center.

Carrick’s snipe was followed by Rasmus Dahlin, who drove the net hard and scored just over a minute later. The captain led by example, accepted a slick pass from Jason Zucker and boosted the blue and gold lead to three. It was Dahlin’s 14th goal of the season.

The barrage continued early in the third period of play. A mere 40-seconds into the frame, Tage Thompson made it a 4-0 Sabres advantage.

Thompson gained the zone slowly, before creating space for himself. His wrist shot from the right circle trickled into the net and produced his 35th goal of the campaign.

It also marked Thompson’s fourth-career 35-goal season. He became the fifth Sabres skater to post four seasons of such goal-scoring volume, joining Rick Martin, Gilbert Perreault, Dave Andreychuk and Danny Gare.

With 3:06 left in regulation, Carrick scored again to make it a 5-0 affair. The initial shot was taken by Logan Stanley from the point. The puck also deflected off a Sharks defender, before bounding into the net off the left skate of Carrick.

From that point, it was all over but the shouting. Alex Lyon was able to complete his career-high third shutout of the season, and seventh clean sheet of his career.

He matched Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen’s effort from Tuesday night at Vegas, as the blue and gold posted consecutive shutouts for the first time since January 2024.

Furthermore, Thursday night’s victory was Lyon’s 10th-consecutive win away from KeyBank Center. He is one road win shy of tying the league record of 11, shared by Evgeni Nabokov (San Jose – 2009-10 season) and Devan Dubnyk (Minnesota Wild – 2014-15 season).

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SCORING RECAP

First Period:
BUF: NONE
SJS: NONE

Second Period:
BUF: 9:05 – Noah Ostlund (11) (Josh Doan, Logan Stanley); 9:41 – Sam Carrick (7) (Rasmus Dahlin, Zach Benson); 10:48 – Rasmus Dahlin (14) (Jason Zucker, Mattias Samuelsson)
SJS: NONE

Third Period:
BUF: 0:40 – Tage Thompson (35) (Peyton Krebs, Alex Tuch); 16:54 – Sam Carrick (8) (Logan Stanley, Zach Metsa)
SJS: NONE

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STATS OF THE GAME:

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BlueStar Home Services Three Stars of the Game:

1.) Mattias Samuelsson – BUF
2.) Rasmus Dahlin – BUF
3.) Alex Lyon – BUF

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What’s next:

The Sabres continue their California road trip on Saturday when they head to Los Angeles to visit the Kings at Crypto.com Arena. Puck drop is set for 4 p.m. with Dan Dunleavy and Rob Ray on the call.