NEW YORK – Casey Mittelstadt saw the Buffalo Sabres find their identity during the second period of a 3-2 loss to the New York Islanders at UBS Arena on Saturday.
The Sabres fought back from a 2-0 deficit on goals from Mittelstadt and linemate Jordan Greenway – with their third linemate, Zach Benson, assisting on both for the first points of his NHL career. The team as a whole moved up the ice more cohesively than it had in its opener against the Rangers on Thursday.
Buffalo nearly took the lead during a sequence in the third period that saw two shot attempts hit the post, including one from Mittelstadt. Instead, New York nabbed the winner on a deflection from Casey Cizikas with 6:20 remaining.
“Obviously, it was a tough ending, but we know it’s early,” Mittelstadt said. “There’s definitely some positive things we can take away from that.”
The Sabres challenged the Cizikas goal for an offside entry, believing that Noah Dobson had backed in over the blue line before receiving the puck. The call on the ice stood after a review.
“You clearly are challenging it because it clearly looks offsides,” Sabres coach Don Granato said. “The question is the discretion, whether it’s offsides, obviously, based on possession. And you can argue whether he had possession or not. Obviously, the linesman is reviewing his own call and we lost the argument.”
It was the second time a call in New York’s favor immediately preceded a goal against. Brock Nelson opened the scoring 5:57 into the contest following a footrace between Connor Clifton and Pierre Engvall. Engvall brought Clifton down as they chased the loose puck over the Buffalo blue line, freeing Nelson to scoop it up and take his shot.
“It looked like it was a sneaky trip by [Engvall] and they got the break,” Granato said.
Clifton had not watched the play when he spoke to the media but said it felt in the moment like he had been tripped.
“I felt that,” he said. “I don’t usually go down too easily. I mean, I’m not gonna fake it. So, I’ve got to watch it and see what happened. I wish I played it differently obviously. I wish I just had a long stick and just poked it in the corner given the result. But I’m just trying to make a play on it.”
The Islanders doubled their lead before the end of the period when Nelson caught a rebound and sent an attempt in off Clifton’s skate as he defended the back door. The Sabres refocused during the intermission and earned a 14-10 shot advantage in the second, including Greenway’s goal.
“I think we found ourselves, honestly, and the way we want to play and how we can play,” Clifton said. “They trapped it up in the neutral zone and tried to force us to dump it in and we were doing that, taking what they gave us.”
Here are more takeaways from the first road game of the season.
- Devon Levi started for the second straight game and made 26 saves.
- Benson, at 18 years and 155 days old, became the youngest Sabres player to record an assist since Pierre Turgeon on Jan. 25, 1988. (Turgeon was five days younger.)
- Benson is the fifth Sabres player under the age of 19 to have multiple assists in a single game, joining Turgeon, Shawn Anderson, Phil Housley, and Rasmus Dahlin.
- The Sabres held a 16-7shot attempt advantage with the trio of Greenway, Mittelstadt, and Benson on the ice at 5-on-5, according to Natural Stat Trick.
Benson initiated their first goal by carrying the puck into traffic as he crossed the offensive blue line and feeding Mittelstadt, who sent Greenway driving across the net.
Benson fought for a puck behind the New York net in the third period and popped it loose to Mittelstadt, who buried a backhand shot to tie the game with 17:26 remaining.
“I think especially on mine there, I got the reward of those two getting in and getting dirty and it just popped right to me,” Mittelstadt said. “So, yeah, it’s been a blast playing with those two guys. They’re hounds on pucks and it makes my job easier.”
The Sabres open a four-game homestand against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday.
The game will be exclusively televised on ESPN with faceoff scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Dan Dunleavy and Rob Ray will have the radio call on WGR 550.
