Sabres wrap: Another Avalanche disaster as Buffalo collapses in 6-5 OT defeat

Sabres wrap: Another Avalanche disaster as Buffalo collapses in 6-5 OT defeat

After the Sabres built a 5-3 lead came the unthinkable: Two goals by Colorado with the goaltender pulled, including the tying goal by Jonathan Drouin with 6.8 seconds left. Overtime

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It happened again.

In a game eerily reminiscent of the one the teams played Dec. 3 in KeyBank Center, the Buffalo Sabres built a big cushion over the Colorado Avalanche and then watched it go poof in the night Thursday in Ball Arena.

If you thought blowing a 4-0 lead at home and losing, 5-4, last month was a loss for all time, we give you Exhibit B.

Colorado 6, Buffalo 5. And in overtime.

This time, the Sabres had a 3-0 lead halfway through the second period. This time, they had answers in a wild third period as goals by Zach Benson and Jason Zucker twice gave the Sabres a two-goal lead, with Zucker's hat trick goal at 16:09 putting the Sabres in front, 5-3.

Then came the unthinkable. Two goals by Colorado with the goaltender pulled, including the tying goal by Jonathan Drouin with 6.8 seconds left.

Overtime seemed inevitable. Defenseman Devon Toews got the game-winner on a breakway after 48 seconds, stealing the puck from Tage Thompson and beating Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.

The Sabres remained last in the East at 14-20-5. Colorado (24-15-0) has won 10 of its last 12.

Red-hot veteran Zucker had a four-point night with a beautiful assist to Bowen Byram for a goal in Byram's return game to the city where he won a Stanley Cup in 2022.

The Avs wiped out a 4-0 Buffalo lead in the previous meeting and pulled out a 5-4 victory thanks to four goals in the third period. It was a gut punch to the Sabres from which they never recovered, as they lost their next nine games after that to cap a 13-game winless streak.


Buffalo Sabres goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, left, stops a shot by Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon in overtime
Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

This felt even worse. It was the fourth time the Sabres have blown a lead of at least two goals in their last 15 games and it came against an opponent they have had massive trouble with over the years. Buffalo is 2-11 against the Avalanche since 2018 and 5-17-5 against them since 2006.

It was a big night for Byram, a Stanley Cup champion for Colorado in 2022. He scored his fifth goal of the season at 17:10 of the first period on a Zucker feed, and that came a few minutes after he got a video tribute from the Avalanche and a strong ovation from the crowd.

Coach Lindy Ruff made some heavy shifts with his forward lines in this one after not showing them at the morning skate.

Zucker stayed on the top line with Tage Thompson but Dylan Cozens joined them, taking over at center as Thompson went to right wing.

Jiri Kulich took over as the No. 2 center, playing with Jack Quinn and Alex Tuch. Peyton Krebs centered the third unit with Benson and JJ Peterka. The fourth unit of Ryan McLeod between Beck Malenstyn and Sam Lafferty stayed intact.

The Sabres were scheduled to head to Las Vegas immediately after the game and will face the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday night in T-Mobile Arena.

First period​

• McLeod had the Sabres' best scoring chance in the first five minutes with a quick one-timer but Wedgewood made a good save.
• Zucker opened the scoring at 13:17, converting a tap-in of a Jack Quinn pass just after Wedgewood had made a great save on Thompson. The power play showed more movement, with Thompson going high to low and not just stationary in the faceoff circle looking for one-timers.
• The Sabres made it 2-0 on the Byram goal as the defenseman bolted into the zone from the red line to create a 2 on 1 and used a quick deke to convert the Zucker feed.
• Buffalo outscored Colorado, 6-0, in the opening 20 minutes this season.

Second period​

• Nathan MacKinnon apparently scored to cut the Buffalo lead in half with 15:04 left in the period but the goal was wiped out on an offside challenge as Toews' stickhandling at the blue line created an offside on Avs forward Drouin.
• Luukkonen, who had another strong game, made a 10-bell save on Toews streaking through the left circle.
• The Sabres went back to the power play at 10:12 on a cross-checking penalty against Colorado's Ross Colton, who was retaliating against Zucker for a check a few seconds earlier.
• Zucker put Buffalo into a 3-0 lead at 11:08 on a Thompson feed to the goalmouth.
• Cale Makar made it 3-1 at 14:58, making a sick deke around Zucker and going bar down to beat Luukkonen.
• The Sabres survived some dicey moments later in the period, including a penalty kill after Benson went off for delay of game with 2:57 left.

Third period​

• Ross Colton cut the Buffalo lead to 3-2, banging home a Samuel Girard rebound at 1:05.
• Benson pushed the Sabres' lead back to two goals just 22 seconds later, alertly potting a wraparound with Wedgewood injured in the crease. Benson had been knocked into the goalie by Avs forward Parker Kelly. The crowd and the Colorado bench were irate and Colorado challenged for goalie interference after a long delay. The Avs were denied that challenge and Buffalo went back to the power play.
• That power play ended on a Tuch hooking penalty and a trip by Cozens left the Sabres two men short for 1:38.
• Mikko Rantanen's one-timer from the right circle at 4:17 got the Avs back with a goal at 4-3.
• Once the penalty troubles ended, the Sabres cooled down the game and didn't give up too many scoring chances. They finally got breathing room on Zucker's hat trick goal at 16:09, with Thompson getting his third assist of the night.
• Makar got his second of the game with 2:26 left to make it 5-4.

 

[HipKat]

Mike Harrington: Even for these terrible Sabres, latest collapse to Avalanche felt unthinkable. But was it?​

Mike Harrington: Even for these terrible Sabres, latest collapse to Avalanche felt unthinkable. But was it?

The Sabres had a 3-0 lead midway through the second period. Led 4-2 and 5-3 in the third and still had the latter advantage with 2 1/2 minutes left. They

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Exactly 5,000 days.

If you flip the calendar pages from April 26, 2011, to Thursday night – Jan. 2, 2025 – that's how many days you get from the Buffalo Sabres' last playoff game to their latest mind-blowing loss in one of the most embarrassing seasons in franchise history. Seriously.

In watching this club for 54 of its 55 years of existence, these eyes had never seen a loss as hideous as the Dec. 3 collapse in KeyBank Center against the Colorado Avalanche, when a 4-0 lead after one period turned into a 5-4 defeat. It was the first blown four-goal lead at home in franchise annals and the first time in NHL history a team went up by four in the first 15 minutes of a game at home – and lost the game without scoring again.

It basically ended the Sabres' season 57 games before the schedule said it would be over. It provided the impetus for a 13-game winless streak that has the entire organizational structure in question and should have general manager Kevyn Adams tidying up his resume and Linkedin page.

But now comes Thursday in raucous Ball Arena. This was worse.

Colorado 6, Buffalo 5. In overtime. An absolute all-timer.


Tage Thompson, left, and goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen head off the ice after Thursday's loss to the Avalanche in Denver. David Zalubowski, Associated Press

The Sabres had a 3-0 lead midway through the second period. Led 4-2 and 5-3 in the third and still had the latter advantage with 2½ minutes left. They didn't just cower into the corner like they did in Buffalo. They had answers for 57 minutes.

And then they didn't.

The Avs scored twice with goalie MacKenzie Blackwood pulled, finally getting the game even on Jonathan Drouin's goal with 6.8 seconds left.

They won it when defenseman Devon Toews stripped Tage Thompson at the Colorado blue line and sped down the ice to burn Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen after 48 seconds of overtime.

At first blush, it was unthinkable. But is it really with this group?

That's four losses after building multiple-goal leads in the last 15 games. This team couldn't stand the heat in a raucous playoff atmosphere, in a building that hosted the Stanley Cup Final 2½ years ago. I was here for some of that and it was just as loud Thursday as those nights in June of 2022.


Avalanche defenseman Devon Toews, right, with center Nathan MacKinnon, celebrates after scoring the winning goal in overtime against the Sabres on
Thursday in Denver. David Zalubowski, Associated Press

Head coach Lindy Ruff's first words to me after this one: "Oh my God."

And you know he worked hard to give me a sanitized version.

"You play a game like that, nine out of 10 times you're going to win a hockey game," Ruff said. "We played a helluva game. We battled hard."

No disagreement here. Jason Zucker was in beast mode with a hat trick and four points. Thompson looked rejuvenated playing the right wing on a new-look top line with Zucker and Dylan Cozens, collecting three assists and four shots on goal in his best game in a while. Bowen Byram scored a beauty of a goal in his return to Denver. Zach Benson added a wraparound goal where he didn't hear a whistle, so he kept playing even as Colorado goalie Scott Wedgewood lay injured in the crease.

All rendered moot.

The Sabres looked scared again at 6-on-5. They let Cale Makar, only a former Conn Smythe Trophy winner, fire home a slap shot with 2:26 left to make the score 5-4 and tighten everyone's collars.

They iced the puck four times in the final 2:02, losing the defensive zone faceoff three times to keep too much pressure on. Futile shots at the empty net where a soft chip through the neutral zone would have killed more clock. In the end, Beck Malenstyn and Alex Tuch were too soft against Nathan MacKinnon, who found a wide open Drouin for the tying goal.

In the final 10 seconds, you have to attack guys. For crying out loud, just go tackle somebody if you have to. Somebody had to go at MacKinnon. Somebody had to not leave Drouin standing alone. Nobody did.

"Just the composure to not just get the puck out in the neutral zone near the end, kill the clock," Ruff said. "Way too passive."

Byram sat slumped in his locker stunned after this one. A full 20 minutes after the shocking end, Luukkonen was still sitting with his leg pads on pondering what had just happened.

"A couple little hiccups from us that give them a chance," Byram said. "You give them a chance, a lot of the time, they're gonna put it in the net. We were that close. I don't know what it was. Six seconds or whatever. Stings for sure."

Zucker didn't agree with my assertion – which was also Ruff's – that the Sabres were too passive in the 6-on-5 time.

"You have to be aggressive when you have the chance," Zucker said. "But you can't just start running around and be aggressive all over the ice. You don't have that opportunity. We all would like to have that back of course, but we just can't run around aimlessly either."

This entire season feels aimless. Zucker has been fabulous but it just looks like he's going to be a prize for somebody else at the trade deadline.

"You give those big dogs more time and space, they just become more dangerous," Benson said of MacKinnon and Makar. "Two of the best players in the world. It's (bleeping) frustrating. I don't know what else to say."

You can read the disgust on Ruff's face and hear it in his voice, which has been at a lower volume for much of the last month than I ever heard it in his first stint here.

He knows. This team is what it is. It's beyond broken, to the point he may not be able to do much to fix it. The Sabres are last in the East on merit.

"You play winning hockey the whole game," Ruff said quietly. "Just a little bit of composure at the end is all you needed."
With this group, it's clearly too much to ask for.