Sabres Shutout Streak Continues In San Jose

The Buffalo Sabres continued their four-game Western road swing with a sluggish start and some good hunting luck in a 5-0 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Thursday. The Sabres relied on goalie Alex Lyon to fend off the young Sharks until the middle of the second period, when Noah Ostlund, Sam Carrick and Rasmus Dahlin scored on Buffalo’s only three shots of the middle frame. 

The Sabres only had 16 shots on Sharks goalie Alex Nedeljkovic, but extended their lead early in the third on Tage Thompson’s 35th of the season, with Carrick registering his second of the game and fourth goal in seven games with Buffalo. Lyon made 23 saves for his third shutout of the season, extending the Sabres scoreless streak to 164:07, going back the second period of the 3-2 shootout victory over Toronto. 

Head coach Lindy Ruff commented on the performance after the game:

What were your thoughts on the effort in the victory?

 (San Jose's) compete early on was at a higher level than ours. We turned some pucks over in the neutral zone. Had some lateral passes again, but our goaltender gave us some great saves. And then I thought we passed up a couple of great opportunities, but then once we got rolling offensively, I thought made a couple of real nice plays.

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What were your thoughts on Mattias Samuelsson’s performance and the overall defensive effort against the dangerous Macklin Celebrini?

We knew they were gonna have to be aware of (Celebrini). I thought, as a group, and Sammy especially, when he was out there, he did a good job making sure he didn't get free. He caught us a couple of times in Buffalo, and we tried to make sure we were aware when he was on the ice.

Lyon really kept you in the game early on, he’s done that for you all year….

(He made) real important saves. I mean, to get through that first period, and not give up any with some of the opportunities we gave him, you've got to give our goaltender a lot of credit.

Thompson scored in the third, but it was nice that you were able to get some secondary scoring in this game:

Yeah, the depth of our scoring has been something that's helped us stay on this roll. I think there are nights where top guys don't get on the board, and that secondary scoring really helps you out. I think you look at again tonight the our fourth line got a couple for us, and then finally, Tage came through in the two on one with Krebs, but the Ostlund line with Norris, they got us started. At different times, I think it's been important that all those guys produce. 

The Sabres move down the coast to take on the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday and finish off the road swing in Anaheim against the Ducks on Sunday. 

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