Kyle Okposo and Alex Tuch each scored short-handed goals within a minute of each other in the second period, leading the Buffalo Sabres to a 5-2 victory over the New Jersey Devils on Thursday night.
Rasmus Dahlin, Owen Power, and Jeff Skinner also found the net, while 40-year-old Craig Anderson made 29 saves for the Sabres in this matchup of teams already eliminated from playoff contention.
Nikita Okhotiuk scored in his NHL debut, and Jesper Boqvist scored a goal for the Devils.
“It was unreal. It’s hard to explain those feelings when you step on the ice. It’s all positive things,” said Okhotiuk, a 21-year-old Russian. “And then the first game, the first goal, it’s unreal.”
Okhotiuk’s goal early in the third period cut Buffalo’s lead to 3-2, but Power responded with his first NHL goal 3 1/2 minutes later.
“It’s pretty surreal. It’s obviously nice just to get it out of the way,” Power said. I think a two-goal lead is a lot better than one, so it was definitely nice.”
Skinner sealed the game with a goal with 3:57 remaining.
The Devils’ power play turned disastrous after Casey Mittelstadt was penalized for hooking Ryan Graves at 10:56 of the second period. Okposo scored from outside the blue line about a minute into the power play, and Tuch capitalized on a breakaway by Victor Olofsson 47 seconds later.
“We did it to ourselves. Short-handed goals are killers, and our power plays have been struggling, so to get scored on short-handed is even worse,” Damon Severson said. “So those ones hurt for sure, and it just kind of started the whole ball rolling against us.
”Devils coach Lindy Ruff attributed the embarrassing goals to poor puck-handling.
“There’s nothing more to it,” Ruff said. “Can’t break it down any other way. There was a play to be made.”
Late in the period, Dahlin scored on a cross-ice pass, breaking his stick in the process, making it 3-0 and drawing boos from the Prudential Center crowd.
Adam Hammond stopped 23 of 28 shots for New Jersey.
UP NEXT
- Sabres: Host the New York Islanders on Saturday.
- Devils: Host Carolina on Saturday.
