The Buffalo Sabres are playing better than they have in previous years, with strong performances from players like Ramus Dahlin.
Dahlin scored for the fourth game in a row—set a new NHL record for a defenseman at the start of the season—and Alex Tuch got his first career hat trick, as the Sabres gave the Calgary Flames their first loss of the season with a 6-3 victory Thursday night.
This is incredible, Dahlin said about what he did. I don’t know what to say. It’s unbelievable that 78 games are left. I have more work to do.
“It doesn’t matter who we’re playing against,” Tuch said. “We can play with anyone.”
Tuch said that the guy has been playing really well recently, and not only is he scoring goals but he’s also not letting the other team score. He’s playing against the other team’s best players and still doing well.
I don’t think I’ll ever be surprised by what Dahlin does because he is always working hard and competing. He will keep working hard tomorrow and be ready to take advantage of any opportunity.
With four minutes left on the clock, Dahlin scored the winning goal for the Sabres. He received a pass from JJ Peterka while he was in the slot, and quickly shot the puck into the goal.
Casey Mittelstadt scored a breakaway goal with a backhander under the crossbar, making the score 3-1 13:10 into the first period. Just 46 seconds into the second period, Buffalo extended its lead to three.
Tuch scored a goal against Vladar after he replaced Markstrom. Vladar then stopped 17 out of 19 shots.
“We didn’t have our legs, we weren’t skating. We weren’t competing well enough. They were more hungry than us,” said Nikita Zadorov, whose third-period goal briefly cut the lead to one goal before Tuch made it a three-goal game.
Mangiapane said that the team cannot afford to underestimate any opponent, and that they did not play well in their most recent game.
The Flames were without their defenceman, Noah Hanifin, because of an undisclosed injury. This resulted in the head coach, Darryl Sutter, having to make his first lineup change of the season by inserting rookie Connor Mackey into the defence. The injury also impacted the pairings, causing Nikita Zadorov to move up from the third pair to play alongside Rasmus Andersson, Hanifin’s normal defence partner. Hanifin is third on the team in average ice time (20:51). Mackey, 26, was paired with veteran Michael Stone. It was Mackey’s 10th career NHL game.
This is the first time in Sabres history that a rookie has had points in four straight games to begin their season. The only other person to do this was Victor Olofsson in 2019-20. JJ Peterka, a 2020 second-round pick of the Sabres, is from Germany. He came to North America last season and had 68 points (28 goals, 40 assists) in 70 games. This season, he has four points (two goals, two assists) in four games.
Fred Cole is a seasoned news reporter with over 15 years of experience in the industry. He has worked for some of the biggest news outlets in the country, including the Associated Press and CNN.