The Buffalo Sabres defeated the San Jose Sharks 5-0 at SAP Center on March 20, with goaltender Alex Lyon making 23 saves to secure his tenth consecutive road victory. The Sabres scored three goals in the second period and recorded their second straight shutout win.
This result marks the Sabres’ third consecutive win and their eleventh in twelve games. Lyon became only the fifth goaltender in National Hockey League history to achieve a ten-game road winning streak. “Credit to the guys,” Lyon said. “I thought we played a mature game today. Kind of found our way through the first period, then started a pretty explosive two-minute stretch. It was awesome, satisfied we got the win.”
Sam Carrick scored twice for Buffalo, while Rasmus Dahlin contributed a goal and an assist. Head coach Lindy Ruff said, “I thought their compete early on, they had a higher level than ours. Our goaltender gave us some great saves. I thought we passed up a couple of opportunities, then we got rolling offensively.” The Sabres now hold a four-point lead over the Tampa Bay Lightning for first place in the Atlantic Division and are tied with the Carolina Hurricanes atop the Eastern Conference.
For San Jose, Alex Nedeljkovic made 11 saves as the team suffered its third straight loss and remains two points behind the Los Angeles Kings for a playoff spot in the Western Conference. Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said, “Just some details in our game. Some line-change stuff, playing the defensive side of pucks, really, in all three zones. … Those would be the main areas [of improvement].” Defenseman Mario Ferraro added, “We had a good first period. I thought [we] came out pretty well, and then, yeah, it was kind of a snowball effect after their first goal.”
The Sabres’ scoring run included goals from Noah Ostlund and Tage Thompson as well as Carrick’s second tally late in regulation. Carrick commented on his performance: “I think we just started playing more our style of play… Good job in the third.”
Buffalo achieved consecutive shutouts for only the third time in ten years and extended its streak of road goals to ten dating back to March 5 against Pittsburgh. Notably, forward Alex Tuch returned from illness to record an assist for Buffalo while Sharks forward Tyler Toffoli left early due to injury with no update provided by Warsofsky.
