The Buffalo Sabres ended their homestand with a second straight win after a 4-3 victory over the New York Islanders on Tuesday night. It was not easy, and the game remained a one-goal game until the final minutes when Bowen Byram scored an empty net goal.
It was a big win for the Sabres as they secured their 2,000th win as a franchise while moving one step closer to ending a 14-season playoff drought, with the 100th point on the season. This is the first time since the 2009-10 season they have reached that milestone. In addition to the milestone, the Sabres are now alone atop the Atlantic Division after the Tampa Bay Lightning lost to the Montreal Canadiens.
These are some of the top takeaways from the Buffalo Sabres win over the Islanders on Tuesday night.
Buffalo Sabres have two players return to the lineup
The Buffalo Sabres were still without Noah Ostlund, who is dealing with an upper-body injury, and they had Zach Benson replace him on the line with Josh Norris and Josh Doan. The Sabres, for the third straight game though, had a player step into Benson's spot on the fourth line.
The first game Ostlund missed was against the Red Wings and Tanner Pearson got the start, followed by Tyson Kozak against the Seattle Kraken. On Tuesday night, it was Jordan Greenway's return to the ice, and he was playing in his first game since January 22nd.
On the blue line, Zach Metsa was back after being sent down to Rochester last week. He was paired with Logan Stanley for the Sabres' third pair. Metsa once again had a solid performance as he had over 14 minutes of ice time and even helped on the penalty kill with 45 seconds, which is something he needs to do more of if he wants to be in the lineup for the playoffs.
Jack Quinn with his fourth power play point in four games
This was a game of power play goals as three of the six goals scored in this game were on the man advantage, with the Sabres scoring two of them and the Islanders scoring one. The star for the Sabres was Jack Quinn, who has been really productive as of late on the power play.
In the game against the Islanders, he would score the first power play goal and then have an assist on Tage Thompson's power play goal in the third period. This is now his fourth power-play point in four games as he has one goal and three assists during that stretch.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen with a big save on a penalty shot and makes franchise history
Midway through the second period, the Buffalo Sabres were holding onto a one-goal lead when Owen Power would turn the puck over, and Anders Lee would take the puck on a breakaway. Power would end up being called for a slash, and the Islanders would be awarded a penalty shot.
However, with Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen in net, it isn't much of an award as he would stop Lee's attempt and has now stopped all four career penalty shots he has faced. He is the first Sabres' goalie to stop all penalty shots he has faced with four or more penalty shots attempted.
The Sabres, for the past few months, have alternated starts between Alex Lyon and Luukkonen but broke away from that rotation for this game. Luukkonen would get a second consecutive start for the first time since the middle of January and delivered another stellar performance with 25 saves on 28 shots.
It will be interesting to see what the rotation looks like moving forward, but this could be an indication that Luukkonen is the leader to be the starting goalie once the playoffs roll around.
Sabres could suffer a big loss in the win if Sam Carrick suffered a long-term injury
Even with the win, it wasn't all good for the Buffalo Sabres, and they could be missing a big part of their roster moving forward. In the second period, Josh Norris took a hard hit into the boards that would force him to leave, but he returned after receiving stitches for a cut to his chin.
The Sabres are clearly not a team to let this go and right at the start of the third period, Sam Carrick was more than willing to drop the gloves with the much bigger Anders Lee. As the fight was coming to an end, Carrick landed hard on the ice and was seen holding his left arm.
He remained on the ice for a while before being helped up by teammates and did not return. Lindy Ruff may not have an update right away but it looks like a significant injury.
It comes at the worst possible time this close to the playoffs after Carrick has been so good since the Sabres traded for him at the trade deadline. He certainly plays a big role on the fourth line but does so much more as a faceoff specialist and on the penalty kill.
Hopefully, the injury is not too serious and he will be back sooner rather than later but if not, this is something that will test the Sabres depth moving forward.