LOS ANGELES – Through two games of this Western trip, the Buffalo Sabres have started well and battled to finish off their games.
Buffalo built a 3-0 advantage Thursday in Anaheim but blew that lead and needed Rasmus Asplund's goal in overtime to pull out a 4-3 victory. The Sabres weren't as fortunate during Sunday's Halloween matinee in Staples Center.
The Eden native burned his hometown team with his third goal of the weekend for the Los Angeles Kings.
Spooked by the Los Angeles Kings' hard-skating attack, the Sabres took a 2-0 lead in the second period, but watched that edge evaporate as well. Eden native Alex Iafallo had the last laugh against his hometown team, scoring the tiebreaking goal with 6:19 left to give the Los Angeles Kings a 3-2 win over Buffalo before an announced crowd of 12,101.
Iafallo took a pass from Tomas Bjornfot and beat Dustin Tokarski from in tight for his fourth goal of the season – and third in two days. The Kings had been in an 0-5-1 rut until Iafallo scored a pair of goals in a 5-2 win here Saturday over Montreal.
People are also reading…
The Sabres (5-2-1) had a 2-1 lead through 40 minutes, but Los Angeles captain Anze Kopitar tied it with 15:10 left on a screened wrist shot six seconds after Colin Miller went off for holding. The Sabres were 5 for 6 on the penalty kill in the game, but all the penalties, including four in the last 31 minutes, threw off the rhythm of their forward lines and left them on their heels much of the afternoon. The Kings outshot Buffalo 34-24, including 27-17 over the final 40 minutes.
"We're starting to mesh really well off the ice. And I think that's really going to help us and it's definitely going to continue," alternate captain Kyle Okposo said.
"It was hard offense today and it wasn't much," Sabres coach Don Granato said. "They buckled down and tightened up pretty darn good at points. I thought that frustrated us. We didn't handle that well, didn't fight through that. ... It's a little bit harder to control momentum in somebody else's building. You have to pay a lot more attention to details."
A big issue was how the Kings were able to use their speed to get around the Buffalo defense. Rasmus Dahlin, in particular, was caught flat-footed several times and Carl Grundstorm went around him to score the Kings' first goal.
"Our 'D' were challenged and struggled at times for them," Granato said.
Here's some other observations on the game:
1. Swedish connection
Rasmus Asplund told reporters here Thursday in Anaheim how much he was enjoying his first trip to California. It's showing on the ice. Asplund opened the scoring Sunday with a short-handed goal at 3:07 of the second period.
Thursday's win in Anaheim marked a trio of career firsts for Asplund: Two-goal game, power-play goal and overtime winning goal. Sunday's score added a short-handed tally to that list of personal milestones. Olofsson regained his team goal lead from Asplund at five at 7:39 of the second, making it 2-0 by burning Jonathan Quick on a breakaway after a blocked shot and one-handed push pass from defenseman Jacob Bryson.
The Sabres did not win a game in 3-on-3 last season, with the four wins in their 4-7 record post-regulation all coming in shootouts.
2. More strong work in net
Tokarski got his third start of the season in goal in relief of Craig Anderson and was again sharp, making 31 saves. While there didn't appear to be much he could do on any of the goals, he was unhappy he couldn't fight through the Brown screen on the Kopitar goal.
"I've got to find a way to see that," said Tokarski, who is 1-1-1, 1.93/.936 in his three starts. "You're going to give up some shots and you trust your goaltender to make those (saves) from farther out. So I've got to find a way to see that puck."
"There's not much more we can ask them to do," defenseman Jacob Bryson said. "They've kept the pucks out of the net every game. They stood on their heads multiple games and even saved us a couple of times. ... They've been awesome in net. A brick wall back there."
3. A new look
The Sabres changed up things at left wing, and Brett Murray was thus able to make his first appearance of the season in place of John Hayden, playing on a line with Arttu Ruotsalainen and Drake Caggiula. Granato also put Anders Bjork on a line with Dylan Cozens and Vinnie Hinostroza and had Jeff Skinner going with Zemgus Girgensons and Kyle Okposo.
Granato continues to say he likes Skinner's game, even though the veteran has only one goal. Skinner had just one shot Sunday.
"There was just no flow today, no rhythm, no flow," Granato said. "A little bit of what they did, a little bit of what we didn't do and couldn't do against them."
4. By the numbers
The penalties left several Sabres spending huge gobs of time on the ice with the club short-handed. Anders Bjork led the way at 5:01, followed by Bryson (4:48), Mark Pysyk (4:18), Robert Hagg (4:05) and Colin Miller (3:49). All the power plays created a monster game for Kopitar, who played a season-high 24:18 and had four shots on goal. He also went 12-9 in the faceoff circle. The goal was the 100th power-play tally of his career.
5. Next
The Sabres are scheduled to practice Monday afternoon in San Jose, where they'll meet the Sharks on Tuesday in SAP Center.
