Rasmus Dahlin skated toward the boards, roared at the home crowd in KeyBank Center and waited for his teammates to celebrate the puck going past Detroit goalie Alex Nedeljkovic.
One shot could not erase the difficult West Coast road trip Dahlin and his teammates endured, yet his goal on the power play in the second period Saturday night could have been an important moment for the Buffalo Sabres.
With Jack Eichel off to Vegas, and neither Alex Tuch nor Peyton Krebs in the lineup against the Detroit Red Wings, the Sabres needed their top players to deliver. Victor Olofsson, Casey Mittelstadt and Henri Jokiharju are still out because of injuries.
Dahlin’s goal gave the Sabres the lead and occurred 64 seconds after Jeff Skinner set up Tage Thompson for the tying marker. Arttu Ruotsalainen made it a two-goal advantage in the third period.
Then, it all fell apart for the Sabres.
Red Wings winger Tyler Bertuzzi scored twice in a span of 90 seconds in the third period to tie the game, and Detroit defeated the Sabres in overtime, 4-3, behind a winning goal by Moritz Seider.
"It’s a learning process," said Dahlin. "We have to see what we can do better, work on it. There’s a lot of young guys in there and we have to understand how to win and prevent them from scoring."
The Sabres (5-4-2) are winless in four consecutive games and dropped to 4-1-1 at home this season. It was the third time in five games that Buffalo squandered a lead of two or more goals.
Coach Don Granato’s players appeared overmatched early. They were giving Detroit (5-5-2) too much space around goalie Dustin Tokarski and the Red Wings took a 1-0 lead only 16 seconds into the game. Most of the Sabres’ 12 shots on goal in the first period were taken from the perimeter of the offensive zone.
The Sabres looked slow with the puck. Breakouts weren’t effective because there was hesitation in the neutral zone. Too many possessions were one-and-done because dump-ins weren’t sent in the proper corner behind Detroit’s net.
A momentum shift began with the trio of Skinner, Thompson and Rasmus Asplund. Skinner nearly tied the score with a point-blank chance on the power play late in the first period, but the Sabres did not relent. Neither did Skinner, who had totaled 24 goals in 124 games since signing an eight-year, $72 million contract with Buffalo in June 2019.
The breakthrough came at 11:32 into the second period when Skinner drove toward the net on the left wing, faked a wraparound and banked a puck off the side of the net to Thompson, who tied the score, 1-1.
"He made a great play," said Thompson. "I just knew if I came right behind him, I had an opportunity that if he didn't make that play and he went the other way, I could still get there."
The Sabres’ struggling power play then moved the puck around the offensive zone, creating room for Dahlin to put a shot on net for the lead. Entering Saturday, Dahlin had a team-worse negative-2.8 goals above replacement, an Evolving-Hockey.com metric that measures a player’s overall impact. He was making familiar mistakes with the puck and even committed a turnover at the blue line shortly before his goal Saturday night.
The Sabres’ bad habits returned in the third, as Bertuzzi was given too much room to notch his first goal and he scored his second by skating around Dahlin on a rush to tie the game.
Goalie Dustin Tokarski finished with 29 saves but allowed the winning goal on a drive to the net by Seider. It was another game in which the Sabres squandered a lead, leaving precious points on the table and creating yet another lesson for Granato's young players.
"They probably got uptight before the second goal," said Granato. "In the defensive zone, it wasn’t any doing on their part. It was us. We slid out of position and opened a seam, which is uncharacteristic. … It was a simple coverage that we’ve done over and over and over. … The unfortunate part is you have to learn from it."
Here are more observations from the game Saturday night:
1. Success story
Rasmus Asplund wasn’t even part of the Sabres’ main practice group at the start of training camp in January 2020. He worked his way from the practice squad to a full-time role in the lineup, and he’s emerged as one of the team’s top forwards this season. Asplund extended his career-best point streak to six games with two assists Saturday. He has three goals and five assists during that span.
It was Asplund who screened Nedjelkovic on Dahlin’s goal. Earlier in the second period, Asplund took control of a loose puck, darted to the slot and set up Skinner for a one-timer that Nedjelkvoic gloved.
Asplund leads the Sabres with 10 points in 11 games.
2. Microscope
For the second time in three games, Dahlin was beat badly in a one-on-one, as Bertuzzi skated around him to score the tying goal with 5:06 left in the third period.
"I'm working on it," Dahlin said.
This is becoming a trend with Dahlin this season. He seems to focus on the puck, allowing his man to beat him with one move. Granato, though, isn't concerned and explained that his forwards were at fault on that play. Bad coverage in the neutral zone allowed Bertuzzi to skate with speed toward the net.
"We can sit here and try to hang Dahls on it," said Granato. "That player can generate speed from 30 feet away and you’re standing there flat-footed. We left Dahls in a very tough position and it was the layers in front of him that led to that.
3. By the numbers: Winger Zemgus Girgensons became the 32nd player in franchise history to appear in 500 games for the team. … Thompson has a point in each of his last three games and finished with a team-high five shots on goal. … With an assist on Ruotsalainen’s goal, John Hayden recorded his first point as a Sabre.
4. Next
The Sabres will practice Sunday in preparation for their game on the road Monday night inside Capital One Arena against the Washington Capitals.
