JJ Peterka's goal helps Sabres cap road trip with 4-2 win in Chicago
JJ Peterka's goal late in the second period stood as the game-winner as the Sabres escaped the United Center with a 4-2 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks.
CHICAGO – Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen tracked the puck from his crease as the six Blackhawks on the ice in United Center tried to score the tying goal Saturday night.
Somehow, the Sabres gave Philipp Kurashev enough room to receive a pass in the slot and unleash a low wrist shot.
Luukkonen, the goalie whom the Sabres awarded a four-year contract this summer, made the save to bail out his teammates, and they returned the favor when Ryan McLeod buried an empty-net goal to secure a 4-2 win over the Blackhawks.
“I want to be part of the solution that gets us to the playoffs,” Luukkonen told reporters after he made 35 saves to earn his first win in four starts this season.
The lead-preserving stops helped the Sabres (2-4-1) salvage the three-game road trip. It began with an overtime loss in Pittsburgh that should have been a regulation win and turned ugly Thursday when they allowed six goals in a loss to Columbus.
Luukkonen wasn’t the only player to deliver a clutch performance, either.
Sabres left wing Beck Malenstyn celebrates with center Sam Lafferty after scoring during the first period of Saturday's game against the Blackhawks in Chicago. Melissa Tamez, Associated Press
Tage Thompson, Beck Malenstyn and JJ Peterka scored a goal apiece. McLeod won a faceoff in the defensive zone before his empty netter. Peyton Krebs’ line with Malenstyn and Sam Lafferty limited Connor Bedard to only two shots on goal. Alex Tuch forced the turnover that led to Peterka’s game-winning goal.
“Total team game,” said Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff. “We needed some big saves, and we got some big saves. Overall, you play like that, you’re gonna win a lot of hockey games.”
The first period was a 20-minute snapshot of how effective the Sabres can be at 5-on-5 when they’re supporting each other, using their speed when they have the puck and closing quickly to defend. They looked as dangerous off the rush as they did in 2022-23, when they were among the highest-scoring teams in the NHL. Chicago (2-3-1) only attempted one shot through the first six minutes of the game and couldn’t stop Thompson’s line.
Thompson gave the Sabres a 1-0 lead 8:39 into the game with a quick shot from the slot to finish a rush chance with his linemates, Peterka and Tuch. The puck ricocheted off Malenstyn’s skate and past Blackhawks goalie Arvid Soderblom to put Buffalo ahead 2-0. The Sabres again struggled to sustain that level of play, though, and took too long to shift to a simple approach once the Blackhawks clogged the neutral zone.
The Sabres began to force bad passes, which gave the Blackhawks more time in their offensive zone. Buffalo also made multiple bad line changes, and a few forwards were caught overextending their shifts, both of which Ruff has worked to eliminate early this season. Craig Smith, a fourth-line winger, broke through with a shot from the left circle that Luukkonen should have stopped, and added his second goal only 6:20 later to even the score, 2-2.
“We’ve been in this situation a lot having leads in a game and not being able to hold onto those leads, especially a (one-goal) lead, and I liked there was no fear or panic in our game,” said Thompson. “We knew we were going to win it.”
The Sabres were in trouble until their top line used a simple approach to regain the lead. Tuch forced a turnover to hem the Blackhawks into their own zone, then Thompson set up Peterka for the goal-ahead goal with 1:23 left in the second period.
Tuch hitting the post of the empty net from nearly 200 feet away with 50 seconds remaining in regulation must have caused some fans to wonder if the franchise is cursed. McLeod gave them a reprieve moments later with his empty netter, but the Sabres’ close call didn’t alleviate most of the concerns surrounding a team that’s carrying the weight of a 13-year playoff drought.
The power play went 0-for-4 and is an abysmal 0-for-21 through seven games. It’s the longest the Sabres have gone without a power-play goal to start a season since 2014-15, when they didn’t score one until their 11th game. Ruff characterized the performance Saturday as “better,” and pointed out a few missed opportunities by his best shooters, but the power play is preventing this team from closing out wins. It’s overshadowing and, in some games, negating the improvements that have been seen with Ruff as coach.
“You can say all kinds of stuff about (our start to the season), but I think there’s been better games than the results show,” said Luukkonen.” It’s not an excuse that will get you very far. We need to be better. We’ve given ourselves spots to win the games and we need to be better about closing those out.”
The Sabres are among the NHL’s highest-scoring teams at 5-on-5, and, according to Natural Stat Trick, they entered Saturday ranked in the top 10 in shot-attempt differential and shot-quality share.
The NHL’s Edge data shows that Buffalo is spending more time in the offensive zone than last season, and Ruff is getting his team to create more opportunities in areas that will translate to more goals. The Sabres ranked in the 87th percentile in high-danger shots and goals after sitting below the 50-percent mark in both categories last season. They produced 12 even-strength goals during the road trip, and they won Saturday night despite playing without injured winger Jordan Greenway, who has been one of their most consistent forwards.
It's difficult to frame any of this as progress when the Sabres are off to a worse start than last season. Don Granato coached them to a 3-4 record through seven games in October 2023. This team has earned only five of a possible 14 points in the standings. General manager Kevyn Adams is under pressure. He’s committed $276.15 million to long-term contracts for five players, only one of whom (Thompson) is off to a strong start, and he’s relying on young forwards to produce after buying out Jeff Skinner’s contract.
Significant changes will be made if the Sabres don’t meet expectations and reach the Stanley Cup Playoffs for only the second time since Terry and Kim Pegula took control of the team in February 2011. The owners were at the game Saturday night watching their team try to rebound from the games in Pittsburgh and Columbus, when the Sabres were committing the same mistakes that cost Granato his job as coach.
Seventy-five games remain. There’s time for the Sabres to fix the power play, eliminate the momentum-crushing turnovers and begin to hit the net more often. But they’ll need to be better, and more consistent, than they were Saturday to be a contender in the Eastern Conference.
“Getting three points on that road trip is big for us,” said Thompson. “Just gotta keep things rolling.”