Lyon continues to be king of the road as Sabres blank Sharks
Lyon (20-8-3) posted his 10th straight win on the road in the Sabres 5-0 win over the Sharks, pulling within one of equaling the NHL record of 11 set by San Jose's Evgeni Nabokov in 2009 and equaled by Minnesota's Devan Dubnyk in 2015.
Goaltender Alex Lyon keeps rolling. The Buffalo Sabres keep rolling. The road feels as comfortable as home for this club.
Lyon made 23 saves and the Sabres scored on all three of their shots in a span of less than two minutes of the second period Thursday. That was more than enough to post a 5-0 win over the San Jose Sharks in SAP Center.
Lyon (20-8-3) notched his 10th straight win on the road, pulling within one of equaling the NHL record of 11 set by San Jose's Evgeni Nabokov in 2009 and equaled by Minnesota's Devan Dubnyk in 2015.
The Sabres, meanwhile, extended their franchise-record point streak on the road to 12 games (11-0-1), and have won six straight away from KeyBank Center. They are 2-0 on their four-game Western trip, with Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and Lyon each posting a shutout.
Buffalo Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin (26), left, reacts with teammate Jason Zucker after scoring a goal
against the San Jose Sharks during the second period on Thursday, March 19, 2026, in San Jose, Calif. (AP Photo/Thien-An Truong)
Noah Ostlund, Sam Carrick and Rasmus Dahlin scored second-period goals to allow the Sabres to seize control. While Lyon was thriving, San Jose goalie Alex Nedeljkovic didn't make a save in the middle period, giving up three goals on three shots.
Despite being outshot, 23-16, the Sabres improved to 43-20-6 with their third straight win, and they are 11-1 in their last 12 games. Buffalo pulled back into a tie with idle Carolina for the Eastern Conference lead and remained four points up on Tampa Bay in the Atlantic Division after the Lightning won at Vancouver.
The Sharks (32-29-6) have lost three straight and lost a chance to climb into the final Western Conference wild card.
How it happened
First period: The teams skated to a scoreless draw in the opening 20 minutes as the Sharks outshot Buffalo 7-5, and had much better scoring chances. Lyon made big stops of Tyler Toffoli and William Eklund in the first two minutes, and stoned Kiefer Sherwood on a 3-on-1 break four minutes later. In the later stages of the period, Macklin Celebrini walked down the slot and Lyon stopped him, as well.Second period: The Sharks continued to push and hit a pair of posts in the first half of the period as Will Smith was stopped by the iron to the right of Lyon and Sherwood was stymied by the pipe to the goalie's left 20 seconds later.
The Sabres finally broke through at 9:05 when Josh Doan fired wide and Ostlund took the puck off the backboards to Nedeljkovic's left and quickly swept it home off a tough angle. The lead went to 2-0 at 9:41 on Carrick's screened 40-footer off a Rasmus Dahlin drop pass, and to 3-0 at 10:48 when Jason Zucker fought off a defender to get a one-handed pass to the goalmouth and Dahlin tipped it home.
The Sabres' three goals in a span of 1:43 were their fastest trio since they got three in 1:38 on Nov. 22, 2022 in a 7-2 win at Montreal. Dahlin, Alex Tuch and JJ Peterka all connected in that game in the first 2:13 of play.
Third period: Tage Thompson made it four goals on four shots when he dribbled one through Nedeljkovic from the slot at 40 seconds. It was Thompson's 35th of the season and snapped a four-game goal drought. Carrick's second was a deflection of a Logan Stanley shot at 16:54.