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The Sabres will aim for their second win over the Philadelphia Flyers in three nights when the two clubs meet in Buffalo on Friday.
The quick rematch comes after a 5-2 Sabres victory Wednesday in Philadelphia, a result that Flyers defenseman Travis Sanheim found “frustrating” for his team.
The Flyers outshot Buffalo by a lopsided 40-15 margin, and Joel Farabee scored to give Philadelphia the early lead just 55 seconds into the game. The score was tied 2-2 after the first period, however, and the Sabres eventually vaulted ahead on three unanswered third-period goals.
“We’re still generating those chances so we’ve just got to stay with it,” said Sanheim, who assisted on both of Philadelphia’s goals.
“[We’ll] try to stay positive as best that we can and hope that things are going to turn here and eventually those bounces are going to start going in. You put 40 shots up in a game, you’re probably going to score more than two goals most nights.”
In even worse news for the Flyers, starting goaltender Carter Hart left midway through the first period due to injury. Hart could be facing an absence of at least a few weeks, leaving Philadelphia in a goalie crunch.
Since the Flyers also play Saturday at home against the Los Angeles Kings, backup Samuel Ersson isn’t likely to start both ends of the back-to-back set. Either Cal Petersen or Felix Sandstrom will be recalled from Lehigh Valley of the AHL to team with Ersson for the next two games, and until Hart is back healthy.
The Flyers are on a three-game (0-3-0) losing streak, and are 1-4-1 in their past six games.
By contrast, the Sabres have won consecutive games for the first time this season, even if head coach Don Granato wasn’t entirely impressed with his team’s overall performance Wednesday.
“We made some mistakes that you have to clean up against anybody. … We know there’s areas we have to be better than we were tonight, that’s where our focus will go,” Granato said.
The Sabres benefited from another strong game from goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, who stopped 38 of 40 shots against the Flyers. Buffalo is also entering a back-to-back against the Flyers on Friday and at the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday, so Luukkonen and Devon Levi figure to split the two starts in some order.
Levi acted as Lukkuonen’s backup Wednesday, after missing Buffalo’s five previous games with a lower-body injury.
Jeff Skinner has nine points (four goals, five assists) over a six-game points streak.
After recording just one point in the Sabres’ first six games, Tage Thompson has started to heat up. The star forward has eight points (four goals, four assists) over his past four games.
Travis Konecny leads all Philadelphia skaters with 11 points (eight goals, three assists) this season.
Both the Flyers and Sabres will be looking to get on track with the man advantage, as the two clubs rank near the bottom of the NHL in power-play percentage. Buffalo’s penalty killers have been the more impressive special-teams unit, as opponents have only four goals on 40 power-play chances against the Sabres this season.
–Field Level Media