Arizona opened the scoring at 7:54 of the first period. The even-strength goal, scored by Teemu Pulkkinen, was assisted by Max Domi and Christian Dvorak. Buffalo tied the game short-handed at 11:54 on a Marcus Foligno goal assisted by Ryan O’Reilly and Rasmus Ristolainen.
The Sabres took the lead just 57 seconds into the second period. Ryan O’Reilly scored the goal with assists by Jack Eichel and Kyle Okposo. Just over a minute later, Tobias Rieder scored an unassisted short-handed goal for Arizona to tie the game. Jack Eichel made it 3-2 Buffalo at 11:08, assisted by Sam Reinhart and Okposo.
Arizona tied the game again 8:20 into the third period. The Alex Goligoski goal was assisted by Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Rieder. From there it was all Buffalo. Evander Kane tallied his 23rd of the season at 14:24, assisted by O’Reilly and Jake McCabe. Marcus Foligno made it 5-3 with an empty-netter at 18:17, assisted by Eichel and Cody Franson. And Sam Reinhart added the final goal, unassisted into the empty net with four seconds remaining.
The Sabres play again at 7 p.m. Saturday when the Tampa Lightning visit the KeyBank Center.
