The Sabres lost the lead, lost the game and lost a goaltender to injury Thursday night. Buffalo fell to Detroit, 3–2 in overtime at Little Caesars Arena, but the most significant loss came 18 minutes into the first period. On what appeared to be an innocent play, goaltender Alex Lyon reached for a puck near the crease, showed immediate discomfort and skated off the ice.
Despite the loss and the bad news about Lyon, Buffalo got encouraging contributions from several young players in a lineup made up mostly of AHL players. Noah Östlund, Konsta Helenius and Jiri Kulich are all expected to contribute to the Sabres during the regular season. Kulich, who missed most of last season because of a blood clot, has been cleared to play and is expected to add scoring depth. He made an impact Thursday with a goal.
Trevor Kuntar opened the scoring for Buffalo after Detroit goaltender Daniil Tarasov made an errant attempt to clear the puck from the front of his net. The puck went straight to Kuntar, who blasted it past Tarasov to give the Sabres a 1–0 lead.
Detroit tied the game with a power-play goal at 16:11 of the first period. Defenseman Axel Sandin-Pellikka slammed home a one-timer past Lyon to make it 1–1.
Kulich put the Sabres back in front just 33 seconds into the second period, sneaking in a shot that trickled past Tarasov to make it 2–1.
Sheldon Dries re-tied the game for Detroit 7:13 into the third period, deflecting a Jacob Bryson shot past Colten Ellis to make it 2–2.
Neither team scored during the rest of regulation, sending the game to overtime. It took just 33 seconds for Alex DeBrincat to score the winner, firing a power-play goal past the outstretched Ellis to give Detroit a 3–2 victory.
The Sabres will be back in action Saturday afternoon when they take on the Pittsburgh Penguins.
