Red Wings Slip Past Sabres For 4-3 win
NICK MENDOLA, Associated Press
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Tomas Tatar's scored with 2:50 left in the third period to lift the Detroit Red Wings to a 4-3 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday.
Riley Sheahan, Henrik Zetterberg and Brad Richards also scored as the Red Wings snapped a three-game losing streak.
Rookie Jack Eichel scored twice and Sam Reinhart also scored for Buffalo, which has lost four in a row.
Detroit held 2-0 and 3-2 leads, and was outshot 34-23 by the Sabres.
Petr Mrazek stopped 31 shots in the win.
Evander Kane put a shot off the right post on a late 2-on-1 break, before Tatar made it 4-3 on Detroit's counterattack.
Mrazek stopped Zach Bogosian after Eichel hit the defenseman on a long pass to set up a breakaway.
Pressure in Detroit's end got the Sabres their first power play when Darren Helm was whistled for hooking at 9:00 of the first period. Both Brian Gionta and Johan Larsson had in-tight chances to put Buffalo ahead, but Mrazek held the puck for a whistle.
Soon after, Jamie McGinn picked Mrazek's clearing attempt off the right board, but couldn't beat Mrazek.
At the other end, Detroit took the lead because of Sheahan.
Sheahan carried the puck down the left of the ice on a 2-on-1 break, and slid a pass past a sliding Mike Weber. Brad Richards snapped a one-time shot past Chad Johnson to make it 1-0 at 12:59 of the first.
After a quiet start to the second period, Gionta navigated around the check of Mike Green to test Mrazek.
Sheahan then increased Detroit's lead to 2-0 by deflecting Green's wrist shot past Johnson at 7:59 of the second.
Mrazek was back at it on the next rush, making a flashy glove save on Kane's hard shot from the slot.
Eichel put Buffalo on the board when he caught Mrazek leaning left to see around McGinn's screen and put a wrist shot far side for his 12th goal of the season at 14:26 of the second.
And the rookie star tied it on a breakaway. Pavel Datsyuk lost his footing, and Eichel got Mrazek to commit before pushing the puck off the post, off the goalie, and in to make it 2-2 at 17:27 of the second.
Zetterberg drifted into the slot to slap a big rebound past Johnson 2:27 into the third to restore Detroit's lead.
Mike Green took two penalties in just over two minutes to give Buffalo a pair of chances to tie the game, and Reinhart converted Rasmus Ristolainen's rebound to tie it at 3.
NOTES: Sabres center Tyler Ennis missed his second straight game with an upper body injury. . Buffalo hosts Florida on Tuesday night, while Detroit plays the second game of its six-game road trip on Monday in New Jersey.
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