The Buffalo Sabres lost 5-2 to the Detroit Red Wings at KeyBank Center on March 28, marking their third straight defeat. Despite this setback, the Sabres maintain a two-point lead over Tampa Bay in the Atlantic Division.
The recent losses come after a long stretch of strong play by Buffalo, but early penalties against Detroit proved costly. Goaltender Alex Lyon said, “I’ve been saying it all year, we’re going to hit adversity at some point. We’ve had a long, sustained stretch of really excellent play, and now we’re hitting a little bit of adversity… The reality of it is, we’re still in a good position, and we just need to nip it in the bud right now and move forward.”
Detroit capitalized on two early power plays following Buffalo’s high-sticking and interference calls. Head coach Lindy Ruff said, “We can’t start the game with taking two penalties like we did. That just fueled their energy, got their special teams going. They’ve got a dangerous power play, and they took advantage of it.” Ruff also noted that eight out of Buffalo’s fourteen penalty minutes were due to high-sticking infractions: “Those are penalties that we have to stay away from… When you do that, you’re going to pay a price, and they made us pay a price for the penalties we took.”
Buffalo has allowed seven first-period goals over its last four games—a shift from earlier performances where they often played with an early lead. Captain Rasmus Dahlin commented on his team’s resilience: “I honestly thought that we were gonna come back. That’s the mentality we have in this group, and we’ve just got to continue to have it.”
Forward Noah Ostlund missed Friday’s game with an upper-body injury and is considered day-to-day according to Ruff. Tanner Pearson filled his spot in the lineup for his second appearance since being acquired via trade.
Looking ahead, Buffalo will face Seattle Kraken on Saturday evening as both teams fight for playoff positions. Ruff said about moving forward: “I think for me, it’s gonna boil down to how we come out in that first period tomorrow night.” Dahlin added: “Tomorrow is gonna show what type of team we are… This is unacceptable.”
