The Buffalo Sabres scored their first shutout win in over two seasons with a 1-0 win over the Calgary Flames. So when did the Sabres last score a shutout?
On October 25th, 2019, exactly 174 games ago, the Buffalo Sabres squared off against the Detroit Red Wings. As the Sabres did multiple times throughout the late 2010s, they were busy treating their loyal fanbase to fools gold, and the tilt with the Red Wings provided the ultimate dose.
The win over the Detroit catapulted them to 9-2 on the season, and the Sabres again looked like a playoff contender early in the season. You can predict how the rest of the year unfolded: The Sabres finished 21-29-7 before the COVID-19 pandemic caused the NHL to delay its season. By that point, the Sabres long-since lapsed into mediocrity.
But let’s take a minute to enjoy the fond memory that was a 2-0 win over the Red Wings, the third of three shutouts that month that Sabres fans wouldn’t see again for another two-and-a-half years.
The Buffalo Sabres shut out the Detroit Red Wings on October 25th, 2019
Goaltender Linus Ullmark logged 41 saves that night. Following a defensive struggle in the first period, defenseman Jake McCabe broke through to put the Sabres on the board 1-0 with assists from, you guessed it, Sam Reinhart and Jack Eichel.
It was one of McCabe’s three goals and 13 total points on the season. And his goal allowed the Sabres to to take up a grit-and-grind approach over the last period-and-a-half.
Missing time with a facial injury earlier in the contest made McCabe‘s goal even more spectacular. The injury occurred following a puck shot to the chin and a subsequent collision with the glass. But after a few stiches, McCabe was good to go.
Early in the third, the Sabres found themselves on the power play and it was not to be wasted. This time, Reinhart scored and gave the Sabres a 2-0 lead with Victor Olofsson and Eichel providing assists.
Ullmark made plenty of highlight-reel-worthy saves that night, with his most notable coming in the first period. Just over three minutes into the game, Valtteri Filppula set off on a breakaway, only for the former Sabres goaltender to deny him.
Ullmark later contributed a memorable third period when he logged 21 saves, including nine in the game’s final three minutes. Coincidentally, the shutout came following a night in which the Sabres allowed six goals to the New York Rangers, just as the 2021-22 Sabres shut out the Flames following a 6-1 debacle to the Edmonton Oilers.
In October 2019, the Sabres logged three shutouts in a single month. As for their current challenge, it’s to put their latest shutout win behind them and focus on the next opponent.