Matthew Knies made the most of his Blue Jackets debut, scoring two goals and adding an assist in Columbus’s 6–3 victory over the Sabres on Thursday night at Nationwide Arena.
One of the keys to Buffalo’s run to the Atlantic Division title last year was its stingy defence and solid goaltending. Neither was on display in its season opener against the Blue Jackets.
In fact, the only player who really looked like he was protecting the net was diminutive defenceman Zach Metsa, who took offence when Blue Jackets heavyweight Mathieu Olivier tapped the puck into the Sabres’ net after a dead play caused by a delayed penalty.
Metsa did his best to stand up to the much bigger Olivier, but fared about as well as the Sabres did.
The Sabres did manage to get on the board first. Matthias Samuelsson opened the scoring with a shot from between the circles that beat Blue Jackets goalie Jet Greaves to make it 1–0, 7:21 into the game.
Columbus responded with three straight goals. Cole Sillinger tied the game at 12:51 when Charlie Coyle made a nifty move to split the Sabres’ defence, then left the puck for Sillinger alone in front of the Buffalo net. Sillinger fired it past Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen to make it 1–1.
Knies put the Blue Jackets on top with his first of the game, a power-play goal from the slot off a feed from Cole at 17:58. Less than a minute later, Adam Fantilli deflected a Zach Werenski point shot past Luukkonen to give Columbus a 3–1 lead heading into the second period.
Early in the second, Jack Quinn cut the lead to one, holding the puck until Greaves slid out of position before slipping it past him.
Knies stretched the lead back to two with his second of the game, deflecting Emil Andrae’s shot by Luukkonen at 7:42.
Buffalo battled back again when Konsta Helenius drilled a one-timer off a pass from Ryan McLeod to make it 4–3 heading into the third.
Columbus tightened up defensively in the third period, and Sean Monahan put the game out of reach with a power-play goal at 14:21.
Olivier put the icing on the cake with an empty-net goal that actually counted, making the final score 6–3.
The Sabres are back in action Saturday night for their home opener against the Chicago Blackhawks.
