Still smiling broadly, JJ Peterka ran to the bank to celebrate with his Buffalo Sabers teammates while most of the 15,364 fans at the KeyBank Center applauded the latest sign of progress for a franchise that is finally bringing hope to a city who is tired of waiting for victory in ice hockey.
Peterka, one of 15 players in the Sabers lineup drafted in the second round or higher, sliced through the Ottawa Senators’ defense and completed a give-and-go with Dylan Cozens to score his first NHL career goal.
“Pure joy,” he said, still grinning as he stood by his dressing room.
Less than three minutes later, the crowd was still buzzing with anticipation as Rasmus Dahlin, now a leader through and through and four years away from his debut, gave the Sabers their first lead by completing another impressive shift when he made one Opportunity created by Peyton Krebs.
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The Sabers opened the season 4-1 Thursday night’s win over the reshaped Ottawa Senators showed how the NHL’s youngest roster looks to surprise in 2022-23 with their combination of speed, skill and competitiveness.
Peterka and Dahlin sparked the comeback, and Victor Olofsson scored two goals without a goal for Buffalo (1-0). Goaltender Craig Anderson started his 20th season in the league with 35 saves.
This was by no means a flawless performance. We saw the mistakes that are typical of preseason hockey, and as expected, young players had to overcome some challenges while adjusting to the fast-paced, physical play against an intradivisional opponent.
But the Sabers’ performance validated the heightened expectations and fanfare surrounding a club that hasn’t made the Stanley Cup Playoffs since 2011.
“We just kept going,” Dahlin said. “It’s the competition that counts. You saw the boys there at the end. We blocked so many shots.
It was Peterka who made an momentum-changing shift that seemed to stun the senators (0-1). Peterka, 20, carried the puck across the blue line and into the offensive zone, passing to Cozens on his right and continuing to split the Senators’ defense. Cozens then sent a centering pass down the slot where Peterka equalized at 4:31 of the second half to make it 1-1.
Peterka, the second youngest player on the team, clenched his fist as the crowd roared. His line with Cozens in the center and Krebs on the other wing had 64.7% of 5-on-5 shot attempts while they were on the ice.
“We kept getting better,” Peterka said of the trio. “We just started clicking. It’s exciting to play with these two guys. We’re just having fun out there.”
Dahlin then had one of his signature shifts to build on the momentum. The No. 1 pick of 2018 carried the puck all the way across the ice and got to the top of the net, where he took a 2-1 lead in the second period with a centering pass from Krebs.
Anderson, the NHL’s oldest current player at 41 years and 144 days, stopped 35 shots to improve his record to 8-3-2 on the opening night of his career.
The Sabers went 0-4 on the power play, but they kept the lead with unwavering penalty shootouts, including a successful 49-second 5-on-3, and a consistent goalie from Anderson who narrowly snuffed Tim Stutzle’s chance from the inside with a poke check in the final minutes of the third period.
Anderson added another save when Claude Giroux got behind the Sabers’ defense, and Buffalo secured the win with two empty goals from Olofsson, the first of which he scored by forcing a turnover.
“There was a lot of emotion and a lot of excitement,” said Sabers coach Don Granato. “The boys forced a lot of plays and mistakes happened, especially on the power play. You can see that. … We had to fight our way through it.”
Here are more observations from the game:
Peterka was among the Sabers’ best players when he appeared in just his third NHL game. In addition to the goal, Peterka almost scored again in the second period and gave Zemgus Girgensons a chance in the third. Peterka ended up with four shots on goal in 11:55 Ice Time.
“JJ was (better) tonight than at any point in preseason, the exhibition games,” said Granato. “That was really nice to see. The competition increased, the competitive puck fights increased and I found he was very determined in puck fights and showed a lot of strength. Once he won a puck fight he saw a lot of options and plays.”
Cozens looked like a “seasoned NHL veteran,” Granato said, with a performance that included three shots on goal and an assist. And Dahlin didn’t succumb to the frustration of what he called “hiccups” in his game. He finished Ice Time with a team high of 24:16.
The Sabers went past in the second half and conceded their $200 – OK, players make a lot more these days, but you get the point – on their way to a 4-1 win over the Senators.
The Sabers were a mess during an initial period in which Anderson noted some “frustrated jitters.” There were uncharacteristic turnovers and some overtaking manoeuvres.
The Senators took a 1-0 lead in the first half when Drake Batherson carried the puck down the left wing and waited for the Sabers’ defenders to collapse towards the net. Batherson then quickly passed the slot where Brady Tkachuk once fired a shot that went off the post. It was the only goal in a fast-paced, disjointed period that saw the Sabers go 16-9 and notched up just two notable opportunities, including a breakaway for Jeff Skinner.
Anderson saved the group with key saves, and Henri Jokiharju, Mattias Samuelsson and Ilya Lyubushkin had shots blocked in the final minutes of regular time.
“We found our game pretty quickly and fought our way through it,” said Dahlin. “We found a way to win. We want to play a quick game. Ottawa are a good team but we stuck with it and we played very well in the end.”
Owen Power made his NHL debut in April at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena, but that game was another first in his young career. Power, 19, took the ice for his first opening night and made some uncharacteristic errors in the first 20 minutes. He turned the puck twice in his own end, the second of which created a 2-on-1, and missed the net on a Jokiharju pass.
There were also impressive plays by Power with and without the puck throughout the game. He seemed more comfortable with each shift, often saving the Sabers by carrying the puck into the neutral zone rather than forcing a pass. Power had a Plus 2 rating in 20:53 Ice Age.
Front for the Sabers centered days Thompson Skinner and Olofsson; Casey Mittelstadt was between Jack Quinn and Alex Tuch; Cozens played in the middle between Krebs and Peterka; and Zemgus Girgensons was on the left wing with Rasmus Asplund in the middle and Kyle Okposo on the right.
On defense was Dahlin with Samuelsson, Power with Jokiharju and Jacob Bryson alongside Lyubushkin. Center Riley Sheahan, who was placed on injured reserve, resumed skating with the team in a non-contact jersey Thursday morning.
Before the puck was dropped, the Sabers and Senators, along with family members of the victims, gathered on the center ice for a moment of silence to honor those killed during the racially motivated shooting at Tops. The Sabers also announced that this season every player will wear a helmet decal that reads “Choose Love.”
The Sabers host Sam Reinhart and the Florida Panthers Saturday at 1:00 p.m. at the KeyBank Center. Buffalo then embarks on a four-game trip to Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver and Seattle.
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