BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — Lindy Ruff received an extended ovation from a sellout crowd when reintroduced as Sabres coach before the puck dropped Thursday night at KeyBank Center. Dispirited supporters, however, groaned on their way toward the exits as visiting fans tossed hats on the ice.
Anze Kopitar scored three goals in the third period to lead the Los Angeles Kings to a comeback victory in Buffalo's home opener. The 3-1 defeat left the Sabres without a standings point after three games this season.
Alex Tuch gave the Sabres a brief lead when he buried his own rebound on a shorthanded breakaway with three minutes left in the second period. Kopitar tied it for the Kings 13 seconds into the third. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 20 saves for the Sabres, who had a 33-23 advantage in shots on goal.
While disappointed with the Sabres' inability to hold the lead, fans also voiced their displeasure with the officials whistling the home team twice in the closing minutes when the score was even.
Kopitar got the winning goal on a power play with 1:38 left in regulation, seconds after the Kings had a 5-on-3 advantage. After Sabres forward Jason Zucker took a questionable roughing penalty in the offensive zone -- and Zucker received a game misconduct after disputing the call -- defenseman Mattias Samuelsson compounded the situation with a blatant slashing penalty.
The end-game errors undid strong penalty killing by the Sabres until that point. The Kings went scoreless on five power plays with three shots on goal in the first two periods, and Tuch's goal came on Buffalo's fifth shorthanded scoring chance of the game.
“The Samuelsson one is like hockey suicide to take a penalty like that because our penalty-killers had done an unbelievable job,” Ruff said. “That is just lack of composure for a group that played so well. The killing had been so good to that point. We have to learn from that one. We’ve gotta sense that, ‘Man, these guys are doing an unbelievable job.’ That’s not on the officials. That’s a good call.”
While tallying a single goal for the third game in a row, the Sabres showed improvement from the opening losses in Prague. Especially, through the first two periods, when Buffalo generated 32 scoring chances while allowing only 16.
Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper (32 saves) made a stellar sliding stick save on what looked to be a sure shorthanded wraparound goal for Sabres center Ryan McLeod in the first period. Moments later, Kuemper stopped McLeod on a penalty shot.
The Sabres debuted one of this season's two goal songs -- "Kickstart My Hear" by 80s metal band Mötley Crüe -- at the end of the first period when it appeared Zach Benson had given Buffalo a 1-0 lead. But replays revealed Benson's shot cross the goal line a split second after the horn.
"I do feel snake bit, there’s no doubt," said Ruff. "We continue to do the right things the puck is going to go in the back of the net or we’re sending every goaltender we play to the All-Star Game, one of the two."
In the third period, Tage Thompson and Bowen Byram had shots for the lead that rang off the goal posts.
“We’ve got to be able to bury some more of those,” Tuch said. “Honestly just bearing down a little bit. Kuemper played well. They played pretty well defensively in front of him, but we got a lot of opportunities, a lot of grade-As. To win games, a lot of times, you’re gonna have to score more than one goal.”
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Jonah Bronstein joined the WIVB squad in 2022 as a digital sports reporter. The Buffalonian has covered the Bills, Sabres, Bandits, Bisons, colleges, high schools and other notable sporting events in Western New York since 2005, for publications including The Associated Press, The Buffalo News, and Niagara Gazette. Read more of his work here.
