BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — If the Sabres aren’t turning around their season quite yet, the past few weeks have turned the tide toward hope. Booed on their way to the dressing room for the second intermission Tuesday, the Sabres turned the crowd in their favor before the third period was half over.
JJ Peterka, Alex Tuch and Henri Jokiharju scored goals within a span of eight minutes as the Sabres dug out of a two-goal deficit to beat the Anaheim Ducks for their sixth straight victory at KeyBank Center. The home win streak is Buffalo’s longest since November 2018.
“We want to it to be a tough place to play here in Buffalo, and I think we did that tonight,” said Dylan Cozens, who assisted on all three goals to reach 30 points on the season.
With wins in six of the past seven games, the Sabres (24-27-5) nudged out of last place in the Eastern Conference standings. Though they still have the fewest points (53) and remain far out of playoff position, the Sabres’ .473 point percentage is now higher than that of the Pittsburgh Penguins (.458), who are on a four-game skid.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 16 saves in a game in which the Sabers had an 83-43 advantage in shot attempts. Shots on goal were 35-18 in Buffalo’s favor. It was 18-5 in the decisive third period.
“We just kept battling,” Cozens said. “Even when things were going well, we just kept battling kept working, we trusted that we were going to win this game, and we never gave up.”
Jokiharju scored the winning goal on a sharp-angle shot from below the right circle 9:31 into the third period. Tuch tied it with his 20th goal of the season, wrapping around the net to tuck in the rebound from his own shot. That came 3:38 after Peterka scored on a one-timer from Cozens at 1:56 into the third.
“We were just playing a little desperate, making plays,” Cozens added. “We knew that we needed to score a couple to get back in that game, so we weren’t scared to make plays.”
Anaheim took a 2-0 lead on power-play goals from Mason McTavish and Leo Carlsson. Buffalo’s power play went scoreless on three opportunities, the last of which drawing the ire of the home fans at the end of the second period.
“Earlier in the year, I talked about we didn’t deal with adversity very well,” coach Lindy Ruff said. “We took what I call a bad penalty early in the game. Gave them a 5-on-3, we gave them some life. And we’ve been a good first-period team. Early in the year, we didn’t handle that very well. We’d probably ramp it up a little bit too soon, and all of a sudden it’s probably three or four for them, and we’re chasing the game. I thought we stayed with it. I think it shows some of the growth of the club.”
Tuch surmised that, “three months ago it would’ve been a 5-1 loss, honestly. And you see the maturity, you see the change, you see no one was down. We were pushing each other, we were pressing each other, we’re making sure each other were held accountable and making sure we were doing the right things the whole time. It was awesome, like I said, it was contagious. We had line after line after line going out there and playing the right way.”
The Sabres travel to face the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday night before returning home to play the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday.
“We’ve got to become a better road team,” Ruff said. “Obviously we’re heading on the road. We’ve played some really good hockey here at home, and now it’s time to go on the road and win some hockey games.
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Jonah Bronstein joined the WIVB squad in 2022 as a digital sports reporter. The Buffalonian has covered the Bills, Sabres, Bandits, Bisons, colleges, high schools and other notable sporting events in Western New York since 2005, for publications including The Associated Press, The Buffalo News, and Niagara Gazette. Read more of his work here.