‘Desperate’ Sabres tackle challenges to top Ottawa, 8-4, for first win of season
The sum of all parts helped the Sabres earn their first win of the season, an 8-4 walloping of the Ottawa Senators at KeyBank Center.
Give credit to the Buffalo Sabres’ penalty-killing units. Those players withstood a stretch of more than nine minutes in the second and third periods which they played a man down and still scored a shorthanded goal.
Give credit to Jason Zucker and Alex Tuch, who found their scoring touch in front of the net and combined for three second-period goals.
Give the most significant credit to the Sabres’ ability to respond to adversity – and to be amused by it. That showed the character of the Sabres, which was hiding somewhere in the background of an 0-3 start to the season.
Buffalo Sabres right wing Josh Doan (91) and Buffalo Sabres center Ryan McLeod (71) celebrate McLeod’s goal in the third period
of their game against the Ottawa Senators at KeyBank Center on Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025. Joed Viera/Buffalo News
It stepped to the forefront Wednesday night at KeyBank Center, and the sum of all parts helped the Sabres earn their first win of the season, an 8-4 walloping of the Ottawa Senators at KeyBank Center.
“I thought we showed a lot of life,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “We showed a lot of passion.”
Zucker, Jack Quinn and Ryan McLeod each scored two goals, Zach Benson had four assists and Josh Doan added three to help the Sabres rally from a second-period deficit, then hold off an early third-period push by the Senators.
“We played with a lot more speed tonight,” said Tuch, whose team finished 3 for 3 on the power play. “We were a lot more assertive, honestly. We were just trying to have fun out there. Everyone was smiling, hooting, hollering, a lot of energy, it was contagious. You could feel it on the bench. Even when stuff was going wrong, guys were taking accountability and they were going out there, trying to be better their next shift.
“No one was perfect out there tonight, but I thought we were all working for each other, and that’s what makes it easy.”
The Sabres didn’t cower when something went wrong against the Senators. They knew they had to make it right.
Down 2-1 to Ottawa after officials ruled Jake Sanderson’s goal stood at 3:58 of the second period, the Sabres roared back by scoring four goals in the next 10 minutes and opening their lead to 5-2 going into the third.
Shane Pinto and Lars Eller each scored goals in the first 2:15 of the third to cut the lead to 5-4, in hopes of forcing the Sabres to go on the defensive.
Same old Sabres response? Negative.
The Sabres called a timeout after Eller’s goal and convened on the bench. It wasn’t just a move to collect their composure. It was a calculated choice.
“Settle down,” Zucker said of Ruff’s message during the timeout. “Start making some plays. Make hard plays. Make it tough on them. We gave them one right in the slot, with no one within 10 feet of them. It’s obviously not the way we wanted to start the third, but it was a good response from us.”
Seventeen seconds later, McLeod scored his second goal of the game and the first of three third-period goals for the Sabres. Quinn scored his second goal 45 seconds later and Jiri Kulich added an empty-net goal with 3:16 left, after the Senators pulled goalie Leevi Merilainen (19 saves) with about 5 minutes left.
Ruff saw his team play its own game at a much faster pace than the first three games. He saw the pluck Benson added to the lineup in his first game of the season, making plays while still wearing a face shield, as he recovers from a laceration he sustained during practice Oct. 9 after he took a puck to the face.
The third-period response was a much-welcome change from the Sabres’ first three games, when they were all but absent in the final 20 minutes.
“We were a desperate group tonight,” said McLeod, whose first goal, a shorthanded tally, tied the game at 2-2 at 6:46 of the second. “We haven’t gotten the results we’ve wanted. We haven’t really played the game that we’ve wanted, either. I think tonight’s kind of a staple, going forward for us, that we should keep building on that.”
The Sabres picked up a pair of points with their first win and continue a six-game stretch against Atlantic Division opponents when they host the Florida Panthers at 1 p.m. Saturday. It’s early, but points in the division can’t ever be wasted or left on the table.
“Those are huge,” Mcleod said. “It’s the bigger games of the year and I think we did a good job tonight, of getting two (points) there. We have a tough stretch coming up, but we have a lot of home games, so we’re trying to get on a little roll here, and get some points against the Atlantic.”
