Last-place Sabres stick it to playoff-hopeful Senators
Published
OTTAWA - The Buffalo Sabres sit dead last in the Eastern Conference standings but they owned the Ottawa Senators this season.
With a 5-2 win Tuesday night, the Sabres (32-36-6) swept their NHL season series against the Senators (39-29-6), outscoring them 17-5 along the way.
The Senators were without captain Brady Tkachuk, who is sidelined with an upper-body injury from a hit by Ryan Graves in Sunday’s game against Pittsburgh. This marks only the fourth game Tkachuk has missed in the past three years.
Buffalo took an early lead and never looked back.
The Sabres jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first scoring twice on five shots.
Linus Ullmark made a save on Mattias Samuelsson but lost sight of the rebound, providing Alex Tuch with an easy tap in.
Just over three minutes later Jack Quinn found Rasmus Dahlin who scored from the point.
Buffalo made it 3-0 midway through the second with some impressive play from Tage Thompson. Thompson came through the slot, dished it to JJ Peterka and buried the return pass.
Ottawa made it 3-1 with Tyler Kleven finding Claude Giroux in the slot for his 15th of the season.
The Sabres took a 4-1 lead in the third when Peyton Krebs intercepted a Dylan Cozens pass and broke in alone on Ullmark, who made 17 saves, and beat him high glove.
The Senators managed to cut the lead in half 23 seconds later on Jake Sanderson’s ninth of the season, but a short-handed empty-net goal by Buffalo’s Ryan McLeod sealed the game.
TAKEAWAYS
Senators: The Senators power play failed to capitalize going 0-for-4.
Sabres: Buffalo capitalized on its chances and was able to get to Ullmark.
KEY MOMENT
James Reimer, who stopped 33 shots, made a number of big saves in the final minutes to secure the Sabres victory.
KEY STAT
This marks the first of eight home games in April for Ottawa. The Senators have just one road game to close out the regular season.
UP NEXT
Sabres: Host the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday.
Senators: Host the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 1, 2025.