The Buffalo Sabres cap off a night to be remembered against the Arizona Coyotes as Rasmus Dahlin scored his first goal in the NHL, and Linus Ullmark achieves his first career shutout.
Skeptics be silenced as Buffalo Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin has scored his first NHL goal in his fifth game. This goal comes off of the previous game versus the Colorado Avalanche where Dahlin scored his first assist. It was only a matter of time before the Swedish defender started to impact the Sabres scoresheet, and as each game goes by, he seems more composed, determined, and NHL ready.
While Dahlin’s goal and Ullmark’s shutout share spotlight tonight, there was a lot to love about the game as a whole.
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After going 0-7 on the power play the other night against the Avalanche, the Buffalo Sabres finally connected with the man advantage. It was a welcomed sight to see a little shade of the power play from a couple of years ago with Jack Eichel and Sam Reinhart feeding the open man in front for a tic-tac-toe goal to Conor Sheary.
With all of that excitement, it absolutely cannot be overlooked that goaltender Linus Ullmark had a stellar night. Ullmark made big saves at key times in the game and kept the Buffalo Sabres in it all the way through. He finished the night with 36 saves on his way to his first career shutout
The line that showed something really special tonight was that of Jeff Skinner, Casey Mittelstadt, and Kyle Okposo. Skinner has had a tough time finding the back of the net, but he found it tonight with a beautiful backhand goal on a breakaway in the third period. Kyle Okposo continues to be one of the hardest working players on the ice every night, and that seemed to rub off on Mittelstadt tonight. Mittelstadt was flying all over the ice tonight; getting scoring chances, drawing penalties, and making good things happen on the ice. It was refreshing to see these guys gel as a team.
The Buffalo Sabres will face off against the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday, October 13 at 10:00pm in Vegas. The building there is always loud and has a lot going on. It will be a great true test of these players against the defending western conference champs.