Buffalo prepares for the San Jose Sharks on Saturday afternoon at home.
By Chris Ryndak / Sabres.com
BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Sabres wrapped up another set of back-to-backs last night in Columbus. However, they were not able to string together their third win in a row, and lost 5-1 to the Blue Jackets.
The game turned in the second period, starting with a breakaway attempt for Ryan O’Reilly that Seregi Bobrovsky stopped.
Jourdon was on the scene:
Trailing 1-0 in the second period, Ryan O’Reilly was the benefactor of a turnover in the Buffalo zone and raced for a 2-on-0 rush, with linemate Benoit Pouliot trailing. His shot was stoned by Sergei Bobrovsky, and shortly thereafter the Blue Jackets began a string of three goals in a span of 2:59 for an eventual 5-1 win.
O’Reilly put much of the onus on himself for missing what could have been the game-tying shot. Phil Housley, however, said the loss was more a matter of what came next.
“It’s just, how do you react to that?” the Sabres coach said. “We understand it’s a big turning point, could have been a tied game there, but how do you react form that point moving forward? We just lost that little bit of discipline in our game to just stay with it.”
The Sabres began to retreat to some bad habits, and their third forward pinching too low resulted in back-to-back goals on the rush for Seth Jones and Nick Foligno. On the first of those two plays, O’Reilly said it was a missed check on his behalf that led to Columbus having numbers going back the other way.
“I missed that [breakaway] and get a little frustrated and I make a mistake offensively too,” O’Reilly said. “I missed my check on the forecheck and he beats me back up ice and they score a goal.”
Matt Calvert scored to extend the Columbus lead to 4-0 prior to the end of the period, tipping a shot between the pads of Chad Johnson and going behind the goalie to tip the puck past the line.
Seth Griffith did tally to make it 4-1 with 2:34 left in the third, but the Blue Jackets regained their four-goal lead with 39 seconds remaining.
It was Griffith’s first goal of the season and his first since Dec. 29, 2014.
Chad Johnson made 33 saves.