Sabres lose in OT to Toronto in UPL's debut, but 'we're not going to get pushed around'
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 18 saves in his first start of the season on Saturday at Scotiabank Arena, but the Sabres gave up all four goals to the Maple Leafs in even-strength situations, including Dakota Joshua’s game-tying goal at 13:10 of the third period, and John Tavares’ game-winning goal...
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen summed up his first start of the season in no uncertain terms. It was a personal evaluation, for better or for worse.
“Frustrating, for me,” the Buffalo Sabres goalie said after a 4-3 overtime loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday at Scotiabank Arena. “I played good, until the third goal. Obviously, I want that one back. I didn’t play perfectly on that goal, and we kind of gave away a point.”
Luukkonen made 18 saves in his first start of the season. But the Sabres gave up all four goals to the Maple Leafs in even-strength situations, including Dakota Joshua’s game-tying goal at 13:10 of the third period, and John Tavares’ game-winning goal in overtime.
The Maple Leafs ended a run by the Sabres in which they had won four of their previous five games, all against Atlantic Division opponents. The Maple Leafs ended their own skid after losing their three previous games, either in regulation or in overtime.
The Sabres' Jack Quinn tries to lift a shot past Maple Leafs goaltender Cayden Primeau during the first period of Saturday's game in Toronto.
Nick Iwanyshyn, The Canadian Press via AP
Luukkonen found out at the end of the Sabres’ Saturday morning skate that he would start the game in Toronto,. The move came after the coaching staff decided Saturday morning that Colten Ellis would not start against the Maple Leafs due to a tight back. Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said he didn’t expect Ellis to miss much time. But for the short term, it justified the Sabres’ decision to keep three goalies on their roster.
The Sabres saw the first glimpses of Luukkonen, who aims to regain his consistency following a 2024-25 season in which he was 24-24-5 and started only five of the Sabres’ final 16 games last season.
Luukkonen played in his first regular-season game since April 15. He missed the first eight games of the season recovering from a lower-body injury he sustained Oct. 1 in a preseason game against Pittsburgh. He said the timing of it was “not optimal, but we don’t get to choose. When it’s your turn to play, you play. That’s it.”
Luukkonen had to be a quick study in his first game of the season. Sabres wing Tage Thompson considered a couple of factors: Luukkonen faced only 22 shots, and now has to thrive on the routine.
“Tonight, in a game where there’s not as many shots, it’s almost harder for a goalie to kind of get into a rhythm,” said Thompson, who scored two goals Saturday, bringing his points total to eight (four goals, four assists). “I don’t want to speak for a goalie, but when it’s a higher shot-volume game, you can usually get into a rhythm, feel the puck a little bit more, and your mind’s in it a little bit more. It’s just going to be repetition. We’re eight games in, now, and he hasn’t played yet, so it’s a big ask, stepping in right away and making an impact like that.
“Everyone in the room has confidence in him, and he’s going to find his footing here.”
Tuch takes a stand
The Sabres led 1-0 with less than six minutes left in the first when Toronto defenseman Jake McCabe leveled Sabres defenseman Bowen Byram, who fired a shot from the right circle.The first player to stand up in Byram’s defense was Alex Tuch. McCabe needed only a few punches to put Tuch on the ice. The Sabres right wing took 17 minutes in penalties as a result of the fight (two minutes for instigating, five for fighting and a 10-minute misconduct), and didn’t return to the ice until well into the second period.
“I’m not going to comment on the part about the 17 minutes, but I saw 'Bysie' was in a little bit of a vulnerable spot,” Tuch said. “McCabe stepped up and they deemed (the hit) clean. It was just quick to me. In that situation, I just want to stand up for my teammates and make it known that we’re not going to get pushed around, and you have to answer.”
Byram returned to the game early in the second and tied it at 2-2 at 14:23 of the second period on a wrist shot from the left point that beat Maple Leafs goalie Cayden Primeau (23 saves) through traffic.
“That’s huge,” Thompson said of Tuch. “That’s what you want to see. That’s a big character teammate of ours, and it’s not easy to do that. He steps in for Bo getting hit there, and that’s something that everyone on our bench respects, and that makes us want to play harder for each other, too, when you see a guy like that doing something like that.”
The overtime goal
Luukkonen’s night – and so did the game – ended 88 seconds into overtime, when Tavares scored his 499th goal on a breakaway, off an outlet pass from Matthew Knies in the 3-on-3 session.“We kind of gave away a point,” Luukkonen said. “We went to overtime, when it’s a coin-flip situation, pretty much knowing everything could happen on a 3-on-3. You’ve got to come up with a couple more saves, but overall, I think the team played really well tonight.
The Sabres couldn’t complain too much. They completed the home-and-home series by earning three of four possible points: two points with a 5-3 win Friday at KeyBank Center and one point for the overtime loss Saturday.
“Tonight was a great game, goals aside,” Thompson said. “I thought we played really hard, back-to-back, against a pretty good team. I thought we were the better team, in both games. It’s nice to get a point tonight. Obviously, would have liked to get two there, but three out of four on the weekend is pretty good.”
Injury update
Ruff said before the game that center Tyson Kozak (lower-body injury) will be out at least a week, and “could be more.”The Sabres recalled Josh Dunne from Rochester of the AHL, and he had one shot on goal, two hits and took a penalty in 12:14 of ice time against Toronto.
