BUFFALO \u2014 Some of the snapshots from the Sabres\u2019 13th win in their last 14 games, Saturday\u2019s 5-3 victory over the reeling Anaheim Ducks, illustrate a confident team whose infectious energy runs up and down the lineup.<\/p>\n
To wit: in the second period, winger Josh Doan\u2019s dogged backcheck as Ducks center Tim Washe tried to exit his zone created the Sabres\u2019 second goal.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThat\u2019s part of the game I take a lot of pride in is getting back and forcing turnovers,\u201d said Doan, who fought Ryan Strome late in the game. \u201c\u2026 A lot of our group has taken pride in the last couple of games is hunting back and creating offense off turnovers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not only did Doan pursue the rookie and strip him, he quickly grabbed the puck and dished to linemate Peyton Krebs, who adroitly fed center Tage Thompson at the net 7:22 into the second period.<\/p>\n
\u201cPure effort,\u201d Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said of Doan\u2019s tenacious pursuit. \u201cJust on the puck, relentless to take it away. Just an awesome job to get (it).\u201d<\/p>\n
As the Sabres killed a penalty later in the period, three players \u2013 defenseman Jacob Bryson and wingers Beck Malenstyn and Alex Tuch \u2013 sold out and blocked four of their 22 shots against the Ducks, their fourth-highest total this season.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt\u2019s not just this game,\u201d said Sabres goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, who made 31 saves. \u201cI feel like how our forwards and D-men block shots, I feel like some nights they have more saves than I do. It\u2019s just great to see, I think that\u2019s a big part of why we\u2019re winning, everybody\u2019s buying into it. It doesn\u2019t matter if they\u2019re (a) first-liner or fourth-liner, everybody\u2019s blocking shots.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ruff said when you\u2019re winning games and getting rewarded \u2013 the Sabres have won 13 out of 14 contests for the first time in their 56-year history \u2013 laying out in front of a shot \u201cbecomes very contagious.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe next man wants to do it,\u201d he said. \u201cWhether you\u2019re selling out for your PK unit or you\u2019re selling out for your goaltender, you\u2019re selling out ultimately to help win the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
In winning their third straight contest following the end of their 10-game winning streak, the Sabres (52 points) moved into the Eastern Conference\u2019s first wild card spot.<\/p>\n
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Fans have reveled in the Sabres\u2019 success over the last month, turning KeyBank Center, often one of the NHL\u2019s quietest rinks over the Sabres\u2019 14-year playoffs drought, into one of the noisiest.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, the start of a five-game home stand, the capacity crowd of 19,070 fans buzzed from the get-go. When Sabres winger Jack Quinn opened the scoring at the 2:03 mark, ending a nine-game goal drought, fans roared like the goal secured a win.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou start the game, and you could feel the atmosphere,\u201d Ruff said. \u201cAnd I think that alone helped us start the game. You get that quick goal, and you could here the building right away. I think players kind of rewarded the fans for the energy they put in the building.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Sabres appeared to be cruising to an easy win against the Ducks, who lost their ninth straight game (0-8-1).<\/p>\n
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Defenseman Bowen Byram scored 7:09 into the third period, putting the Sabres up 3-0. Byram\u2019s 10th goal in just his 43rd outing tied his career high.<\/p>\n
After Olen Zellweger spoiled Luukkonen\u2019s shutout bid at 15:16, Quinn\u2019s second goal at 16:00 restored the Sabres\u2019 three-goal lead.<\/p>\n
Then Leo Carlsson and Mason McTavish scored at 18:02 and 19:12, respectively, to move the Ducks within 4-3.<\/p>\n
Center Josh Norris\u2019 empty-net goal sealed the victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cDefinitely want to clean up the end of games, especially for Upie,\u201d Quinn said.<\/p>\n
Ruff said the Sabres experienced \u201ca little bit of a mental letdown.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe weren\u2019t good enough,\u201d he said. \u201cWe let our goalie down. That is not up to par for our club. Our club can\u2019t accept that. We\u2019re a better club than that. We played well to that point. What we did in that last five minutes isn\u2019t good enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
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But talking out some big mistakes and sloppy play after another win is a heck of a lot better than doing it after a loss.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the good part of this, and knowing that our standard is a lot higher than this,\u201d Ruff said. \u201cIf we\u2019re going to accept that standard, not good enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Sabres host the Florida Panthers tonight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BUFFALO \u2014 Some of the snapshots from the Sabres\u2019 13th win in their last 14 games, Saturday\u2019s 5-3…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83358,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[65549,163,824,165,164,67389,62454,2065,67385,67390,67387,1716,67383,1721,16534,67388,4860,67386,1606,65548,2721,62463,67384],"class_list":["post-131420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-alex-tuch","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-ducks","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-beck-malenstyn","tag-bowen-byram","tag-florida-panthers","tag-jack-quinn","tag-jacob-bryson","tag-josh-doan","tag-leo-carlsson","tag-lindy-ruff","tag-mason-mctavish","tag-olen-zellweger","tag-peyton-krebs","tag-ryan-strome","tag-tage-thompson","tag-the-ducks","tag-the-sabres","tag-tim-washe","tag-ukko-pekka-luukkonen","tag-win-the-game"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}