The Buffalo Sabres were coming out of the All Star break on a two game winning streak after beating Los Angeles and San Jose at the end of January. To start the second half of the season, they hosted the Dallas Stars last night. It was going to be a challenging game for the Sabres with a very good Stars team coming into their building.
Despite a strong effort, Buffalo lost 2-1. It was a very frustrating game because you can make a case that Buffalo was the better team. Unfortunately, the final score is the only thing that matters, and the Stars were the better team in that department. The Sabres put up 48 shots on goal, but still lost the game.
The story of the game was Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger. He was absolutely amazing for Dallas, and he was the reason why the Stars were able to win the game. After the first period, Buffalo outshot Dallas 16-8. Then once the second period concluded, the shots were 16-4 favoring the Sabres. Even though the Stars outshot Buffalo in the final frame 18-16, Oettinger made some huge saves to preserve the win. Hats off to him for a great performance.
With that being said, hats off to Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen as well. Like Oettinger, he also made some very nice saves as well as some point blank chances for Dallas. He was not the reason why the Sabres lost the game. The game winning goal was very unfortunate as it went off of Sam Steel's foot and into the net.
As a team in general, the Sabres played well, but just couldn't score another goal. Players like Rasmus Dahlin and Dylan Cozens had so many chances, they just couldn't solve Oettinger. Buffalo had two great chances to tie it up in the final minute. Unfortunately, Oettinger had other ideas and stole the victory for Dallas.
We're past the moral victories stage obviously, however you can't deny that the Sabres played good last night. Buffalo will have a couple of days off before they welcome in the St. Louis Blues on Saturday afternoon.