Alex Lyon shuts out Islanders, matches Sabres franchise record for consecutive wins
Alex Lyon tied a Buffalo Sabres franchise record by earning his ninth consecutive win as a goalie, shutting out the New York Islanders.
Alex Lyon’s consistency has been rewarded in many ways. He’s in his 10th season of professional hockey, the goaltender from northern Minnesota has seen the highs and lows of professional hockey.
He helped the Florida Panthers to the Stanley Cup Final in 2023, and he’s also been told that he’s been sent to the minor leagues at various points in his career. Now, in his first season with the Buffalo Sabres, he’s gotten quality starts. He’s come back from an injury and kept his goaltending form. He’s earning the rewards of both consistency and persistence.
Lyon made 27 saves in a 5-0 win against the New York Islanders on Saturday at UBS Arena, earned his second shutout of the season, and matched a Buffalo Sabres organizational record.
He earned his ninth consecutive win – a stretch that dates back to Dec. 9, when he helped the Sabres to a 4-3 overtime win at Edmonton – and now shares space with some of the Sabres' goaltending greats.
Buffalo Sabres goaltender Alex Lyon (34) watches the puck during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the New York Islanders,
Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026, in Elmont, N.Y. AP Photo/Heather Khalifa
Lyon’s ninth consecutive win matches the longest winning streak by a Sabres goalie, set by Gerry Desjardins, who had a nine-game winning streak Dec. 11-29, 1976.
“We’re playing so consistently right now, and again, tonight, we maybe had a little bit of a lackluster second period, then turned it around,” said Lyon, who is 12-6-3 in 22 games this season. “That’s what I think we’re getting good at, maybe when we, emotionally, get a little bit disengaged, we try to get re-engaged. As a goalie, that’s all you can ask for, that consistency.”
Defenseman Mattias Samuelsson has known Lyon since he was a teenager in suburban Philadelphia and trained with Lyon, who played for the Flyers organization from 2016-21.
“He comes to the rink, every day, and he works his bag off,” Samuelsson said. “He’s a good pro. Taking care of himself, doing what he needs to do. When you see what he puts in, every day, it’s not very surprising that he plays this well, in and out. And the team’s playing well, in front of him, which obviously helps.
“But whenever we need a big save out of him, and there’s definitely a couple tonight there, in the second, he steps up and makes them.”
Lyon’s success mirrors that of the Sabres, who are 18-3-1 since Dec. 9, and have won four of their last six games.
However, the Sabres appeared to be in some peril less than six minutes into the game Saturday when Casey Cizikas appeared to give the Islanders a 1-0 lead. Officials waved off the goal on the basis of goalie interference.
“When I saw the video, it seemed like it was probably going to be disallowed,” Lyon said. “You’re just so puck-focused that when something happens that’s out of the normal course of the game, you can feel it. But I didn’t have a really good wherewithal. But they immediately waved it off. We talked about it, and I felt like it was the right call.
“Sometimes weird things happen, so you never know. I appreciate, always, when the refs stand up for you, because it goes a long way.”
Then, at the end of the first, Lyon stopped Tony DeAngelo, and the Islanders had a second goal waved off. Mat Barzal’s shot from the left point bounced off the ice and past Lyon, but officials ruled the puck crossed the goal line after the buzzer to signify the end of the first period.
Jason Zucker gave the Sabres a 1-0 lead 33 seconds into the second. Then, ahead 2-0, the Sabres scored three third-period goals, including Zucker’s second goal 25 seconds into the third, and Lyon remained steady, even as the Islanders outshot the Sabres, 27-21.
“He comes in every day, with a mindset of getting better,” Samuelsson said. “And he pushes the pace, a little bit, too, for guys off the ice, taking care of their bodies. He’s a good leader.”
Zucker's spark
Zucker has seven points in his last six games, including a combined three goals in a 4-2 win Thursday at Montreal and Saturday’s win on Long Island.Zucker has been the spark for the Sabres in recent days. He had four of the Sabres’ 11 high-danger scoring chances against the Islanders, blocked two shots and was a plus two Saturday.
“We need that,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “We need that out of our veteran guys. Not only did he score two goals, but he laid himself out on a big blocked shot, too. I look at that as sometimes being bigger than scoring. He’s putting himself first and forefront, to help win a hockey game.”
New York’s shorthanded chances
About those second-period Islanders scoring chances that Samuelsson referenced …The Sabres went on a power play at 11:46 of the second when Matthew Schaefer was penalized for hooking, but the Islanders created three shorthanded scoring chances in the two-minute window.
Lyon stopped Simon Holmstrom and Bo Horvat on shorthanded shots. Then, as the penalty was about to expire to Schaefer, defenseman Bowen Byram came up with the puck in front of the net against Adam Pelech, with Lyon out of position and on the opposite side of the front of the crease.
“They are really aggressive in those situations,” Lyon said of the Islanders, who have six shorthanded goals this season.
Ruff didn’t like the Islanders’ shorthanded chances, even though the Sabres killed off three penalties.
“We made a lot of bad decisions,” Ruff said. “It wasn’t that they created (shorthanded chances), we made bad decisions.”
Zucker didn’t, either.
“I didn’t like our power play today,” said Zucker, whose team did not register a power-play shot against the Islanders. “I don’t think any of us did. We got out-chanced on our power play, which is never a good thing. Usually, the power-play is a momentum builder for us, and that was a negative thing, today. Lysie (Lyon) bailed us out.”
Making a trade
The Sabres announced after the game Saturday that they have traded forward Victor Neuchev to Carolina for defenseman Gavin Bayreuther.Bayreuther has four goals and nine assists in 33 games with the Chicago Wolves of the American Hockey League and will be assigned to Rochester. Neuchev, a third-round NHL draft pick in 2022 by the Sabres, has six goals and 10 assists in 34 games with Rochester of the AHL this season.