Buffalo Sabres: Top 5 unforgettable moments in March 2022
The Buffalo Sabres finished 8-3-3 in March and in the process, gave fans plenty of reasons to be stoked for the future
For the Buffalo Sabres, March 2022 was by far their most successful month since October 2019, when they finished 9-2-2. And it wasn’t just the fact that the Sabres enjoyed a successful month; it was how they rose to adversity following a six-game losing streak to end the month of February.
Flashback to March 1st, 2022, and no one in the league had a high opinion of the Sabres. Tell anyone in NHL spheres the Sabres would have finished the month 8-3-3, winning games in dramatic fashion and outscoring a hot division rival 10-3, they would have laughed in your face.
Let alone shutting out one of the NHL’s best teams, or a game-winning shot banking off the boards and ending up in the net with 12 seconds to spare in regulation. What about taking six talented teams into overtime and winning three of those outings?
If the NHL held a monthly most improved team award, the Sabres would probably have gotten the honor. This team won eight games total over their previous three months and matched that total in just 28 days.
Want more fun? The Sabres earned 21 points between December 2021 and February 2022. In March, they earned 19, just two points shy of matching their points total in the previous three months.
Sure, it would have been nice to see the Sabres win another overtime game or two. But who cares? This team, all but eliminated from the playoffs, still gave fans a reason to tune in.
But they did just more than hold your interest in March. The Buffalo Sabres added five unforgettable moments to franchise lore. Let’s relive them.
Beating the Toronto Maple Leafs…Twice!
On March 2nd, 2022, the Sabres were riding a six-game losing streak. Fans weren’t interested in watching a team about to face a gauntlet of playoff contenders, starting with their Atlantic Division rival, the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The game started like any other, with the Sabres and Leafs splitting goals after a period. Then the Sabres got hot, with Victor Oloffson, Tage Thompson, Jeff Skinner, and Kyle Okposo overwhelming Leafs goaltender, Petr Mrazek.
The 5-1 thrashing of the Maple Leafs was a game to remember. At least until the teams met at Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton 11 days later. After a scoreless first period, the Sabres and Leafs traded blows, with Peyton Krebs and Vinnie Hinostroza putting the Sabres on the board.
In the third, Hinostroza and Krebs struck again, handing the duo multiple-goal games. Late in the third, things got snippy between defenseman Rasmus Dahlin and Leafs forward Auston Matthews, resulting in a two-game ban for Matthews.
However, the chippiness did not reinvigorate the Leafs, as Tage Thompson negated any chance of a comeback with an unassisted goal at the 17:35 mark of the third period. The game also gave goaltender Craig Anderson his 301st career win.
Revenge win over the Vegas Golden Knights
You couldn’t script a better ending than the Sabres revenge win over the Vegas Golden Knights. Sure, Alex Tuch provided a memorable moment when he stripped the puck from ex-Sabre Jack Eichel and scored on an empty-netter.
Yeah, a perturbed Eichel’s cheap shot at the Sabres faithful drew more laughs than hisses during his postgame interview. Hey, they say actions speak louder than words, right? Eichel lost, the Sabres won. And that’s all NHL historians will remember regarding who got the last laugh here.
Despite the memorable win over Eichel’s Knights, the game also thrust Craig Anderson into the NHL record books when he recorded his 300th win. Anderson, the aging journeyman he is, proved he remains a worthy goaltender well into his career’s twilight.
As for the scoring, Peyton Krebs started to heat up in this one with a goal while Victor Olofsson, perhaps the team MVP of March 2022, put the Sabres ahead at the 16:16 mark in the third period. And of course, Tuch’s game-sealing goal sent the Eichel-led Knights back to the Mountain Time Zone with a bad taste in their mouths.
Shutting out the Calgary Flames
The Sabres hit crossroads before their tilt with Calgary. Following two unforgettable wins, the Sabres skated into Edmonton, where the Oilers embarrassed them in a 6-1 thrashing. The next night, they headed into Calgary to face a Pacific-leading Flames team with Stanley Cup aspirations.
And while Craig Anderson got much of the glory in March after notching his 300th win, the Epic in Calgary was Dustin Tokarski’s night. A journeyman goaltender who spent most of his career floating in and out of the AHL, Tokarski had a night to remember, stopping 24 shots in 62:53 of ice time.
It was also a game where the Sabres, despite failing to find twine until Tage Thompson’s game-winning goal recorded ten more shots on goal than the Flames, with 34. They also won 49% of their face-offs, and took advantage of 17 giveaways from the Flames.
While the Sabres only won by a point, on paper, they manhandled the Flames. The shutout was also the team’s first since October 25th, 2019.
Six overtime thrillers
The Sabres hung with 12 legitimate playoff contenders in March 2022. Of those 12 games, they forced overtime in six of them. And while they suffered blowout losses to the Oilers, Florida Panthers, and Los Angeles Kings, the Sabres also put the NHL on notice that they were no longer a rebuilding hockey team.
These were the kinds of games the Sabres would have lost by at least three goals between November 2021 and February 2022. Instead, they split their overtime wins and losses, with three of those games ending up in a shootout.
The most memorable game in that slate came against the Pittsburgh Penguins, a playoff team the Sabres played well against earlier this season. It was a game where the Sabres and Pens traded blows in a classic, heavyweight fight kind of a matchup.
The blossoming Tage Thompson put up two goals and Zemgus Girgensons contributed with another. On the other end, Penguins lifers Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang kept the Sabres on their heels.
After a scoreless overtime period, Thompson found twine during the shootout and the rest will go down in Sabres lore. The Sabres beat the Pens in a thrilling fashion, and it proved that they can even hang with what might just be the NHL’s model franchise of the 2010s and even into the 2020s.
Tage Thompson’s epic game-winning goal
Tage Thompson’s game-winning goal against the Chicago Blackhawks won’t just go down in Buffalo Sabres lore. It might not even only go down in NHL lore. This game-winning goal is arguably one of the wildest plays in the history of modern North American professional sports.
But it wasn’t just Thompson’s epic game-winner that made the Sabres-Blackhawks tilt on March 28th so memorable. It was the fact that, after 22 minutes, they seemingly lapsed into the same old Sabres. Trailing 4-0, no one expected this tilt to end well.
Then Victor Olofsson found twine twice. Kyle Okposo‘s goal at the 14:32 mark in the second put the Sabres within one, and Vinnie Hinostroza’s goal at the 2:39 mark knotted things up. Midway through the third, the Sabres found themselves down by a goal before Alex Tuch scored late in the contest.
Last time the Sabres won eight games in a month. light. Related Story
The game looked as though it were headed toward yet another overtime period. But with 12 seconds remaining, Thompson shot the puck with so much force his stick broke. The buck banked off the boards and off of Blackhawks goaltender Keven Lankinen’s skate, sealing the deal for the Sabres.
(Statistics provided by NHL.com)