Sabres blank the Blue Jackets
The Buffalo Sabres recorded a shutout over the Columbus Blue Jackets — a tidy, momentum-building win that puts their defense in the conversation right now. The result was singled out in recent sports roundups covering NHL action this weekend, which also flagged optimism around other Toronto-area teams. (x.com)
Buffalo didn’t just win this game on April 9. The Sabres gave up 37 shots, scored five times, and still walked out with a 5-0 shutout because rookie goaltender Colten Ellis stopped every puck he saw for his first National Hockey League shutout. (nhl.com) The score stayed tight for almost two periods, which is what made the finish look so lopsided. Peyton Krebs put Buffalo ahead 1-0 at 13:41 of the first period, and the game was still 1-0 until Josh Doan scored at 7:19 of the third. (espn.com) Then Buffalo turned one mistake into a flood. Doan stripped Charlie Coyle at the Columbus blue line for the 2-0 goal, Jack Quinn scored at 13:21, Doan scored again 25 seconds later, and Rasmus Dahlin added an empty-net goal at 16:55. (espn.com) Ellis was the hinge point the whole night. Columbus won 57.9 percent of the faceoffs and outshot Buffalo 37-24, but Ellis finished with a 1.000 save percentage and turned a game that could have been tied into a shutout. (espn.com) Buffalo’s defense did more than clear rebounds. Josh Norris set up the first goal after stripping Zach Werenski, Logan Stanley assisted on two third-period goals, and Dahlin scored his 19th of the season from the blue line into an empty net. (nhl.com, nhl.com) This landed at a sharp moment in the standings. Buffalo improved to 49-23-8 and stayed first in the Atlantic Division with 106 points, while Columbus fell to 39-28-12 and stayed outside the top three in the Metropolitan Division with 90 points. (espn.com) For Columbus, the shutout was the latest hit in a bad stretch. National Hockey League coverage listed the Blue Jackets as having lost seven of their last eight games after this one, which is the kind of skid that turns every empty-netter into a standings problem. (nhl.com) For Buffalo, this looked like the version of the team that can survive a messy night and still control the result. The Sabres came into the weekend on a three-game winning streak, had allowed 236 goals through 80 games, and got this win even though their goalie had entered the night with a.895 save percentage in 14 appearances. (espn.com, nhl.com)
