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<\/p>\nBUFFALO, N.Y. \u2014 The Buffalo Sabres took another step toward ending the longest playoff drought in NHL history.<\/p>\n
Tuesday night, the Sabres grinded through a 4-3 win over the New York Islanders to get to 100 points on the season, the first time they\u2019ve hit that mark since 2010. And while the Sabres were handling their business, the Ottawa Senators, Detroit Red Wings and Philadelphia Flyers \u2014 the top three teams pushing for a playoff spot \u2014 all lost in regulation. Because the Sabres have already locked up the regulation wins tiebreaker over the Red Wings and Flyers, they can now clinch a playoff spot with a road win over the Senators on Thursday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels good to see that 100 on there,\u201d forward Peyton Krebs said. \u201cIt\u2019s been a lot of work, obviously. Lot of ups and downs. We still got a long ways to go here, but that feels good to hit that 100. I think it\u2019s going to really give us some momentum here in the last few games and in the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Sabres had to pay a price to get points 99 and 100, though. Late in the second period, Anders Lee hit Josh Norris from behind into the boards. Norris went face-first into the glass and was bleeding from his chin and mouth. Lee didn\u2019t receive a penalty.<\/p>\n
And then, on the opening faceoff of the third period, Sam Carrick dropped the gloves to fight Lee. Carrick is 3 inches shorter and 30 pounds lighter than Lee, so it was a tough matchup. Carrick handled his own before getting off-balance and twisting his arm while being dragged to the ice. Carrick was writhing in pain and had to be helped to his feet by his teammates before he went to the locker room with a left arm or shoulder injury.<\/p>\n
Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said Carrick will be evaluated further Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, you look at what Carrick\u2019s done for us,\u201d Ruff said. \u201cI don\u2019t think I can say enough about him. He\u2019s fought; he\u2019s scored goals. He\u2019s been a big, big part of our team, and for him to challenge a guy that hit Norris from behind, I just hate to lose him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carrick came to the Sabres at the NHL trade deadline and has made an immediate impact on the team\u2019s fourth line. He wins faceoffs, kills penalties and has five goals in 13 games as a Sabre. Even with the depth the Sabres have, losing Carrick for any extended period of time wouldn\u2019t be easy to handle.<\/p>\n
Tuesday night, they managed to respond. A few minutes after Carrick left, the Sabres got a power play, and Tage Thompson buried a wrist shot from the slot for his 38th goal of the season.<\/p>\n
The Islanders managed to tie the score late in the third period when Lee threw a puck to the front of the net and it hit Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen\u2019s stick, then bounced off Owen Power and into the net. But a few minutes later, the Sabres got a dominant shift from their top line. After an all-out effort to backcheck and end an Islanders rush in the neutral zone, the Sabres regained possession, and Thompson flipped the puck down the ice. Alex Tuch won a race to it, skated it behind the net and found Krebs with a perfect backhand pass. Krebs finished with a goal, then jumped into the boards to celebrate.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could tell that shift Tuchy had his legs, and he was feeling it,\u201d Krebs said. \u201cHe had a lot of speed there, doing his thing that he usually does, taking away, and I kind of had a feeling he was going to throw it in there and just had to be in the right spot at the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bowen Byram added an empty-netter, and the Sabres escaped with a 4-3 win. With the victory, they moved back into first place in the Atlantic Division. They have to win just one more game to bring playoff hockey back to Buffalo.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n Sam Carrick left in the third period after fighting Anders Lee. (Timothy T. Ludwig \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what else we saw in Buffalo\u2019s win.<\/p>\n
1. The Sabres\u2019 power play is suddenly hot. This game swung thanks to two power-play goals, first from Jack Quinn early on and then from Thompson in the third period. Norris had the assist on both goals, which marked his first multipoint game since March 5. Quinn has been productive lately, and Thompson seems to have more room to operate on the power play with the addition of another shooting threat. If the Sabres can get their power play figured out before the playoffs, it will be a big boost in the postseason.<\/p>\n
2. Zach Metsa was back in the lineup after the Sabres sent him down to the AHL for the weekend. He played on a pair with Logan Stanley, which meant Michael Kesselring, Conor Timmins and Luke Schenn were the three scratches on defense.<\/p>\n
One thing holding back Metsa\u2019s case for the playoff lineup is that the Sabres haven\u2019t given him much time on the penalty kill. That changed Tuesday. With a 2-1 lead late in the third period, Ruff sent Metsa out there for a shift on the PK, and he handled it well. That\u2019s the latest sign of Ruff trying to expand Metsa\u2019s role to see how much he can handle.<\/p>\n
3. Jordan Greenway returned to the lineup for the first time since Jan. 22. He\u2019s had two surgeries in the last two seasons for a lingering core muscle injury. He recently tried an alternative rehab treatment and is feeling the best he has felt all season.<\/p>\n
Greenway logged 11:13 of ice time, including 1:33 on the penalty kill. Especially with Carrick exiting the lineup, having a healthy Greenway available for the fourth line will be useful down the stretch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BUFFALO, N.Y. \u2014 The Buffalo Sabres took another step toward ending the longest playoff drought in NHL history.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":183141,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3297,9,11,10,49,51,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-183140","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-buffalo-sabres","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-headlines","11":"tag-new-york-news","12":"tag-new-york-state","13":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-state-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}