Buffalo gets goals from Sheary, Mittelstadt, Okposo; Ullmark makes 28 saves in victory.
By Heather Engel / NHL.com Correspondent
BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Buffalo Sabres scored two power-play goals for the second time in three games in a 3-1 win against the Detroit Red Wings at KeyBank Center on Saturday afternoon.
The Sabres are 5-for-10 on the power in 4 games in the month of February after scoring once on 25 opportunities in January.
“The power play is really doing a good job possessing the puck in the zone,” Buffalo coach Phil Housley said. “I would like to see them shoot a little bit more. You saw two goals that came by just getting pucks to the net, but they have done a terrific job in the month of February. It’s been a whole different story than it was in January. They’re contributing. We’re going to need them, especially in tight games like this.”
Conor Sheary, Casey Mittelstadt and Kyle Okposo scored for Buffalo (27-20-7) in the second period, and Linus Ullmark made 28 saves.
Dylan Larkin scored and Jimmy Howard made 18 saves for the Red Wings (21-27-7).
“We’ve got to get back to getting dirty with our offense,” Detroit coach Jeff Blashill said. “We’ve got to get back to getting pucks to the cage with a guy at the cage, finding ways to score those dirty goals. That’s been one of the biggest improvements from the beginning of the year to the midway point but now all of a sudden it looks like we want to pass at the net. You can’t pass at the net, you have to shoot it.”
Sheary intercepted Justin Abdelkader’s pass and used Red Wings defenseman Mike Green as a screen to make it 1-0 from the high slot at 1:15 of the second period.
Mittelstadt extended his point streak to four games with a power-play goal from the right face-off dot at 10:05 to give Buffalo a 2-0 lead.
“You get a bounce here and there, it kind of gets you going a little bit,” Mittelstadt said. “But I never lost confidence or anything like that. It’s important to keep working on what you know you need to do to get better, and eventually they start coming.”
Detroit cut the lead to 2-1 on the power play when Larkin used his speed on a wraparound to slide the puck into the right side of the net at 17:14. The Sabres went ahead 3-1 when Okposo, again on the power play, scored from the top of the right circle with 31 seconds left in the period.
“It’s a tough one to give up,” Frans Nielsen said. “Coming out a one-goal game, it’s nothing, but two it’s a little more difficult. It was a tough one but at the end of the day we’ve got to put more pucks in the net.”
Andreas Athanasiou came close to bringing the Red Wings back to within one with eight minutes left in the third period. Nielsen sprung the speedy wing on a breakaway but Ullmark closed his pads and held tight as he slid backwards in his crease to preserve Buffalo’s two-goal lead.
“He’s a very fast guy,” Ullmark said. “It’s all about taking away as much as possible. Put the pedal to the metal. Luckily it bounced off and I kept it outside the net.”
They said it
“I don’t think there’s any question that Dylan is taking huge steps towards being that good all-around centerman that you have to be to be a successful hockey team. I think he’s a huge building block for this team because of it.” — Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill on Dylan Larkin
“I thought the guys responded really well. I thought we did a much better job in front of our net and when they did get to the interior [our] guys tied them up and we were able to box them out to give Linus a good line of sight to the puck. … It was a big improvement from last game.” — Sabres coach Phil Housley
Need to know
Ullmark’s .914 save percentage through 50 NHL games is the best by any goalie who played his first 50 games with the Sabres. … Dahlin became the fifth defenseman in NHL history to collect at least 30 points before his 19th birthday, a list topped by Housley. … Athanasiou has 6 assists in his past 5 games. … Thomas Vanek has 10 points (4 goals, 6 assists) in his past 9 games.
What’s next
Sabres: Host the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday (3 pm ET, ESPN+, MSG-B, TSN3, NHL.TV)