EDMONTON — At this point the Buffalo Sabres will take any road win, no matter how it comes about.
After holding a 3-0 lead over the Edmonton Oilers through 40 minutes, the Sabres allowed the home team to come roaring back and tie it up on a Connor McDavid goal with just two seconds left and their goalie pulled.
But Buffalo needed just 33 seconds in overtime as two players committed to Ryan McLeod, who spotted Alex Tuch all alone in front and he scored his 11th of the season.
“I didn’t think our effort or determination wavered,” Tuch said. “That 6-on-5 goal was really nothing, we go to shoot it out and it lands right on the best player in the world’s stick. So, that one’s pretty tough. Resilient, and we just kind of put our head down and worked.
“Even when it wasn’t going well, we still continued to try to battle hard and were able to get it done the hard way.”
Josh Doan had a pair of goals, Tage Thompson had a goal and two assists, and Rasmus Dahlin had three assists for the Sabres (12-14-4) who snapped a three-game losing skid and improved to 3-9-2 on the road.
“I think it shows as a group our determination to end something like this and get back in the win column,” Doan said. “It’s one of those games where they’ve got a really good team and you’ve got to know that they’re coming late in the game.
“When a game gets going like that, you’ve just got to kind of hunker down there, and they did a good job capitalizing on chances, but to get a win in overtime on a play from ‘Clouder’ to ‘Tuchy’ is huge for us.”
Doan has been on a bit of a roll of late. The 23-year-old Arizona native has seven points, including three goals, in his last six games.
In addition, Thompson moved into a tie with of Alex Tuch for the team lead with 26 points. Thompson is just the fifth Sabres player to score 40 goals or more in a calendar year on more than one occasion.
“It’s a huge win for us,” Thompson said. “We’ve had by no means an easy season, we’ve faced a lot of adversity. But I think that builds character and it makes you stronger as a team, it just depends how you face it. So, I thought we handled tonight really well, a lot of energy on the bench, especially after a tough one yesterday.”
The Sabres lost 7-4 to the Flames in Calgary on Monday.
Colten Ellis saved all six shots he faced in the Sabres’ net before leaving the game late in the first due to an injury and being replaced by Alex Lyon, who made 21 saves.
“That was one hell of a win, and we fought through the elements,” said Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff. “I love the way our guys played, our guys battled through everything. We battled through every element out there.
“We played so hard all night. We lose (Josh) Norris, we lose our goaltender, we were banged up, we lost bodies … and in a back-to-back, we played one hell of a game and we fought every element out there.
“I just said on the bench, ‘Stay in it, we’ll win it.’ We haven’t had a lot of breaks go our way, not that a lot of breaks went our way when it came to reviews and non-calls, but we fought through it.”
The Sabres play the fifth game of their six-game road trip in Vancouver against the Canucks on Thursday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 10, 2025.
Shane Jones, The Canadian Press
