The center missed past 15 games; Buffalo defeats Chicago for first time since 2009.
By Joe Yerdon / NHL.com Correspondent
BUFFFALO, N.Y. — Jack Eichel had an assist in his return and Nicholas Baptiste scored two goals, including the go-ahead goal late in the third period, to give the Buffalo Sabres a 5-3 win against the Chicago Blackhawks at KeyBank Center on Saturday.
Baptiste scored with 1:56 remaining to give the Sabres a 4-3 lead, deflecting a shot by Marco Scandella for his fourth goal of the season.
Ryan O’Reilly, Benoit Pouliot and Sam Reinhart scored, and Chad Johnson made 34 saves for the Sabres (23-36-12). Eichel missed the past 15 games with a high-ankle sprain.
The Sabres defeated the Blackhawks for the first time since Dec. 11, 2009; they had lost 12 straight (0-9-3).
Jonathan Toews, Tomas Jurco, and Jordan Oesterle scored and J-F Berube made 27 saves for the Blackhawks (30-34-8) who remained 16 points behind the Dallas Stars for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference.
Baptiste tied the game 3-3 in the third period 1:57 after Toews scored his 20th goal, 20 seconds into the period.
Reinhart, who also had two assists, scored an empty-net goal at 19:21 to make it 5-3.
O’Reilly gave the Sabres a 2-1 lead at 11:07 of the second period with a power-play goal when he poked in a loose puck after Berube saved a shot by Eichel that was tipped by O’Reilly for his 20th goal.
Jurco made it 2-2 at 14:15 of the second when his shot was saved by Johnson but bounced off Rasmus Ristolainen and into the net.
Pouliot gave the Sabres a 1-0 lead at 18:10 of the first period when he batted a puck that went off Oesterle.
Oesterle made it 1-1 at 8:15 of the second period he received a backhand pass from Patrick Kane for his fifth goal.
Sabres forward Zemgus Girgensons left the game at 11:19 of the first period with an undisclosed injury and did not return.