The Buffalo Sabres will look to sweep a four-game road trip when they conclude it with a matchup against the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday.
Buffalo (44-20-6, 94 points) is coming off a 4-1 win against the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday, the Sabres’ fourth straight victory and 12th in its past 13 games en route to holding the top spot in the Atlantic Division.
Trailing 1-0 after the first period on Saturday, Buffalo’s Tage Thompson tied the score early in the second. Sam Carrick scored the go-ahead goal midway through the third, Rasmus Dahlin added a goal a minute later, and Zach Benson sealed the victory with an empty-net tally.
The Sabres have allowed only one goal through the three games on their trip.
“We have a slogan that ‘Everybody ropes, everyone rides’,” Thompson said. “It means there’s no job that’s too big or small for you to do out there. When everyone out there is doing those little things that aren’t very pretty but that show the guy next to you that you care about winning, it’s infectious. I think everyone in the room is doing it, and that just bleeds throughout the lineup.”
One of those moments came on Carrick’s tally. Kings defenseman Joel Edmundson stepped up to the right wall to lay a hit on Benson, who had the puck. That allowed the puck to get free, with Carrick collecting it and bringing it to the net before lifting a backhand over goalie Anton Forsberg.
Carrick, acquired by Buffalo from the New York Rangers before the NHL trade deadline this month, has five goals in eight games with his new team and has been a seamless fit as the fourth-line center, with winger Beck Malenstyn, Benson and Peyton Krebs alternating on the other side.
“You’re always looking to score, but first and foremost we want to be a tough line to play against, defensively responsible,” Carrick said. “We’re not going to be a run-and-gun line. We’ve got offensive weapons on our team we’ll rely on for a lot of that stuff, but if we can just do our job, shut down other teams and chip in offensively, that’s great too.”
The surprising Ducks (38-27-4, 80 points) will look to tighten their grasp on top spot in the Pacific Division. Anaheim has won two of its past three games after dropping three of its previous four and is three points ahead of the Edmonton Oilers.
The Ducks skated away with a 4-1 victory against the Utah Mammoth on Friday in their most recent outing. After giving up the opening goal less than two minutes into the contest, Ryan Poehling tied it later in the period. Alex Killorn delivered the go-ahead goal, and Cutter Gauthier and Mikael Granlund each notched an empty-net tally.
“The points are just huge, right?” Killorn said. “Like, especially in the Pacific, we want to kind of stay where we’re at, and we have teams right behind us. And with a win or loss, things can change really quickly. So we value these points highly.”
Killorn also had two assists in the win for his first three-point game of the season.
