LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 23 saves, Jason Zucker scored the game's only goal, and the Buffalo Sabres beat the Los Angeles Kings 1-0 on Wednesday night. The Sabres have won five of seven.
Luukkonen stopped six shots in the first period, six in the second and 12 in the third to get his first shutout of the season in his return after being sidelined for two games because of a lower-body injury.
“Coming back and getting that effort level from the guys was awesome,” Luukkonen said. “I feel like we fought well,” Luukkonen said. “Everybody did their job. It doesn’t always go perfect and you kind of have to battle through it. I feel like the guys were blocking shots as I said, they were taking away the backdoor chances, so overall it was just a good effort.”
With the game scoreless after two periods, Zucker scored 38 seconds into the third on the power play by redirecting Rasmus Dahlin’s shot. Zucker was unbothered at the top of the crease, and that positioning turned into his fourth goal of the season with the tip of Dahlin’s effort.
“They’re a tight team,” Zucker, who scored his 200th career goal. “It’s a stingy game every time you play them. We knew that going in and it was that the entire night. It’s never going to be a pretty one against a team like that, it seems like.”
Dahlin has points on the man-advantage in four straight games, and he extended his point streak overall to seven straight with four goals and six assists in that span.
“You look at that goal, Dahls did a great job getting in, Zucker did a great job of being in front,” coach Lindy Ruff said. “There’s a lot of goals now where we’re getting it up top and we’re shooting through traffic and we’re getting rewarded for it.”
Tage Thompson, who leads Buffalo in goals, missed his third straight game because of a lower-body injury. He had practiced the past two days.
Buffalo came into the night 2 for 19 (10.5%) on the power play away from home, which ranked 30th in the NHL. But a 1 for 3 showing was enough to take down Los Angeles.
Sabres visit Anaheim on Friday night.
