Many Buffalo Sabres fans may have been asleep before their Thursday night game concluded.
If that’s true, they all woke up to a crazy score from Buffalo’s clash with the Anaheim Ducks.
The final scoreboard read Buffalo 7, Anaheim 6.
There aren’t a lot of 7-6 NHL games, but that’s where the Sabres found themselves on Thursday night. It sure feels a lot better for Buffalo to have won such a game rather than to come out on the losing side of it.
How Sabres Won 7-6
The Sabres rode quite the roller coaster to a 7-6 win in a game that was tied 3-3 after the first period.
The Ducks scored the first two goals, with Mikael Granlund and Cutter Gauthier both scoring on power plays less than three minutes into the game.
Buffalo made an inroad when Tyson Kozak scored on assists from Sam Carrick and Mattias Samuelsson to pull within 2-1.
Roger McQueen made it 3-1 35 seconds later for the Ducks.
The Sabres got the last two goals of the first period. First, it was Noah Ostlund on the power play assisted by Zach Benson and Tage Thompson. Then, it was Thompson assisted by Benson and Peyton Krebs.
Most of the second period was scoreless, but Thompson sent it to the third with Buffalo up 5-3 by scoring two goals in 15 seconds within the final 90 seconds of the second period. The first was assisted by Krebs, and it was Krebs and Rasmus Dahlin getting Thompson his hat trick.
The Sabres then pushed the lead to 7-3 to begin the third period. First it was Jack Quinn on the power play assisted by Dahlin and Thompson. Then it was Benson with an assist from Olen Zellweger with about 13 minutes to play.
The Ducks then scored three goals to pull within 7-4, then 7-5, then 7-6.
The penultimate goal came with 68 seconds to play. The last goal came with 31 seconds to play.
The Sabres held on for dear life to win.
Buffalo improved to 6-4-3, and Anaheim fell to 5-7-1.
Goalie Stats
The ongoing goalie worries in Buffalo won’t be helped much by giving up six goals.
Colten Ellis got the start coming off a shutout in his last outing, and he faced 35 shots — Ellis saved 29.
The single-game save percentage works out to 82.9%.
Of the saves, 25 came at even strength, three came on the powerplay and one came shorthanded.
On this night, Ellis had to do just enough as he got seven goals of support. His shutout had come in a 2-0 win, but this was quite the different night at the office.
How Sabres Won Wild 7-6 Game Over Ducks