Nick Baptiste scores his first career goal, but Buffalo comes up short, 2-1.
From sabres.com, VANCOUVER – In a game that was full of opportunities for the Sabres to put the puck into the back of the net, there’s a bit of irony in the fact that the one goal they did get against the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday night came off the skate of their opponent.
The Sabres outshot the Canucks 27-20 and had multiple scoring chances in front of the net in the second and third periods, but still lost 2-1 at Rogers Arena. Their lone goal was kicked into the net by Canucks defenseman Alexander Edler.
“Fourteen shots in the second period, I think that’s how we need to play, how we wanted to play,” Sabres coach Dan Bylsma said. “We had opportunities to sneak one by to get a goal and that was our mentality. We needed to keep pushing and keep playing that way and didn’t come up with it.”
Credit Vancouver goalie Jacob Markstrom, who made 26 saves, for staying strong when the Sabres got in close. Markstrom stopped Kyle Okposo twice on the same play after Okposo forced a turnover and got in alone late in the second period.
Ryan O’Reilly had multiple chances around the net in the third period but he too missed the mark. Shortly after, with 8:37 remaining in regulation, Buffalo finally got on the board. Nick Baptiste took a shot off of a faceoff in the offensive zone. Two Canucks players went for the puck and forced it to bounce into the air, where it deflected off of Jack Skille and was kicked in by Edler.
The referee originally waved the goal off under the belief that it was thrust in off the body of Nicolas Deslauriers, but video replay confirmed that the puck hadn’t touched Deslauriers and the call was reversed. The goal was awarded to Baptiste, his first in the NHL.
“We’ve been emphasizing getting pucks to the net and hadn’t shot enough in the last couple games,” Baptiste said. “I just tried to get it to the net and obviously it was a fortunate bounce to kind of pinball in there.”
Baptiste’s goal brought the Sabres within one, but their comeback ended there. They spent precious minutes on the penalty kill thanks to calls for hooking and then for having too many men on the ice, and they were unable to tie the game after pulling goalie Robin Lehner late.
Lehner made 18 saves on 20 shots. The two goals he allowed both signaled firsts for Vancouver. The Canucks earned a regulation lead for the first time this season when Jannik Hansen broke a scoreless tie 9:50 into the contest, and they earned their first power-play goal of the season off the stick of Daniel Sedin to increase their lead to 2-0 early in the third.