NHL: Sabres 'fired up' about winning ways, take on Sharks next

There’s still more than a fifth of the season remaining, and nobody wants to jinx it, but Lindy Ruff and the Buffalo Sabres can feel it.

For the first time since 2011, ending an NHL-record 14-year playoff drought, Buffalo is expected to reach the postseason.

The Sabres, who have won all seven games since the NHL returned from the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics break, look to stay hot on Tuesday as they host the San Jose Sharks.

Buffalo isn’t just sneaking into a playoff spot — it’s bulldozing anyone in its path. That included the Tampa Bay Lightning, who fell 8-7 in a chaotic Sabres victory on Sunday. The game featured 15 goals, five fights, and 102 penalty minutes.

“You see a couple guys, their faces a little swollen, a couple little scrapes,” Ruff said. “It just puts a smile on your face. That’s my kind of hockey.”

Tampa Bay trailed 3-0 and 4-1, then scored five straight goals. The Sabres twice fell behind by two goals in the third period but rallied each time.

“That’s hockey right there,” said Alex Tuch, who scored twice. “It’s awesome. I’m really happy to get the two points. I’m so proud of our team.”

Jason Zucker scored two goals and added an assist, Josh Doan netted two, and Tage Thompson, the team’s leading scorer, tallied four assists to extend his career-high points streak to 11 games. This is Buffalo’s longest streak since Jack Eichel recorded a point in 17 straight games in the 2019-20 season.

Zucker evened the game at 7 with 5:31 remaining, and Doan scored the winner 1:14 later as the Sabres improved to 28-5-2 since starting a 10-game winning streak on Dec. 9.

The current seven-game streak, the longest active in the NHL, is only Buffalo’s second-longest streak over the past three months.

“Finally, we’re here, and we’re doing good things,” said defenseman Rasmus Dahlin, who added a goal and two assists. “So I don’t take this for granted at all. I’m so fired up. I’m so happy. I’m so happy for Buffalo as a city and all the fans, too. This means the world.”

The Sharks have missed the playoffs for six straight years. They have lost seven of their last 10 games and sit one point out of the Western Conference’s second wild-card spot.

San Jose dropped its second straight overtime game on Saturday, a 2-1 loss to the New York Islanders, finishing a 3-1-2 homestand.

“Some things we did well, and it’s a tough game out there. You gotta fight for ice,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “I thought our guys grinded.”

Macklin Celebrini, the Sharks’ 19-year-old star who led Team Canada with five goals at the Olympics, evened the Islanders contest in the second period with his team-leading 32nd goal. Celebrini now has 89 points, fifth in the league, 45 more than San Jose’s second-leading scorer, Will Smith.

“Just gotta keep playing,” Celebrini said. “A couple tough losses in the last two games, and right there, I think we just need to capitalize on our chances.”

—Field Level Media/Reuters