COLUMBUS, OH -- The Sabres hit the ice at Nationwide Arena in Columbus as the proud owners of a three-game winning steak. As they return to Buffalo, the streak will stay in Ohio but will take home with them a hard fought road point after erasing a two-goal deficit in the 3rd period Saturday night.
Buffalo jumped out in front early as Tage Thompson, a late addition to the lineup after Evan Rodrigues was scratched and returned to Buffalo for what the team called personal reasons, slid a nifty backhand pass Kyle Okposo who beat Blue Jackets' backup goaltender Joonas Korpisalo just 1:38 into the first period to take an early 1-0 lead. After Pierre-Luc Dubois tied the game almost midway through the period, Jeff Skinner drove a deflected Jake McCabe point shot past Korpisalo to push the Buffalo advantage back to one by the end of the period.
In the second the game shifted dramatically in favor of Columbus, as the Jackets scored three times, twice on back-to-back tallies by Cam Atkinson just :31 apart. Columbus held the shot advantage in the stanza as well at 16-8.
The Sabres responded early in the third period. Jason Pominville scored his fifth of the season snapping a behind-the-net Jack Eichel backhand pass home from the low slot to cut the Columbus lead to one. Just under two minutes later, Casey Mittelstadt chopped a rebound home on his backhand on the power play to tie the contest back up at 4-4. The score remained even through the remainder of regulation, sending the game to overtime for the first occasion during '18-'19 for the Sabres.
The extra time was short. On the first shift, Columbus' Artemi Panarin found room to release a shot that beat Sabres' goaltender Linus Ullmark high to the glove side for his second goal of the night to seal the game for the Blue Jackets, 5-4.
As for the Sabres, the point was the team's 13th in 11 games so far this year. They return home to face the Calgary Flames Tuesday night at KeyBank Center. Puck drop is set for 7:05.
