It wasn’t easy, but the Sabres have themselves a winning streak

The Buffalo Sabres officially have their first winning streak of the 2021 NHL season. The Sabres defeated the Rangers last night 3-2 in Buffalo to secure their second straight win.

Dylan Cozens opened the scoring for Buffalo on a power play goal in the first period. Cozens now has two goals early on in the season. He has played as well as the Sabres could have hoped for being a rookie and he is really making his presence felt in Buffalo.

Tobias Rieder scored a second period goal on a breakaway chance that came at the end of a Buffalo penalty kill. And the captain finally put one in the back of the net. Jack Eichel scored the goal that would go on to be the game-winning goal in the second period to give the Sabres a 3-2 lead.

Buffalo looked very strong even though they only won by one. The Sabres continued their power play momentum from their previous game as they scored two goals on the power play on four attempts. The penalty kill also performed well as they shut down all three of the Rangers’ power play chances, including the final 1:37 of the game that the Rangers played all of with a six on four advantage after they pulled their goalie and Taylor Hall committed a penalty.

Another facet of the game that Buffalo dominated last night was faceoff percentage. The Sabres won the faceoff battle 39-17, which is almost 70% of the faceoffs. It is a sometimes overlooked stat that can be a huge help throughout a game.

My only complaint I have from last night is it seemed like Buffalo took their foot off the gas in the third period when they were up one. Through the first two periods, the Sabres out-shot New York 22 to 15. But in the third period, the Rangers had 15 shots on goal compared to only two for Buffalo. Luckily for the Sabres, Linus Ullmark seemed to be laser-focused in the third as he made some impressive saves to hold onto Buffalo’s lead.

The Sabres will look to add to their win streak as they take on the Rangers again Thursday night in Buffalo. If they could keep up their momentum, we could see them climb up the East Division standings in no time.