Red Wings-Sabres wrap-up: Red Wings drop lead, rally, and take OT victory over Buffalo

The Detroit Red Wings may or may not have earned their 4-3 overtime victory over the Buffalo Sabres, but they took it nonetheless, and coming into Saturday night’s tilt 0-3-and-1, sometimes you have to just take those “unearned” victories and run with them.

Detroit comes home for a 4-game home stand that begins tonight against the Vegas Golden Knights (6 PM EST on Bally Sports Detroit/ATT Sportsnet Rocky Mountain/97.1 FM). Vegas rallied from a 2-0 deficit and a 20-to-1 shot deficit in their first period vs. Montreal to take the Canadiens 5-2 on Saturday, so it will be interesting to see who comes out and takes Sunday’s affair.

As far as Saturday’s effort is concerned, Detroit rallied from a 3-1 third period deficit on the strength of a pair of Tyler Bertuzzi markers, and Moritz Seider’s game-winning OT goal was his first…

But if the Red Wings had not received fine goaltending from Alex Nedeljkovic, who stopped 29 shots, I’m not sure we would have seen the Wings recover after Pius Suter’s first-shift goal was buried by 2 2nd period goals scored in 1:04, and a 3rd period-marker by a man whose name is legally spelled Arttu Ruotsalainen.

Lucas Raymond had a game of his own, assisting on 3 of the Wings’ 4 goals; Bertuzzi added a helper for a 4-point night, and the pairing of Nick Leddy and Filip Hronek played close to (and over) 25 minutes, so Detroit may have found a 1A/1B pairing on defense…

And the Sabres, who were without several of their own marquee names, sounded quite a lot like the Red Wings in their assessments of Saturday night’s loss, as the Buffalo News’s Lance Lysowski noted:

With Jack Eichel off to Vegas, and neither Alex Tuch nor Peyton Krebs in the lineup against the Detroit Red Wings, the Sabres needed their top players to deliver. Victor Olofsson, Casey Mittelstadt and Henri Jokiharju are still out because of injuries.
Dahlin’s goal gave the Sabres the lead and occurred 64 seconds after Jeff Skinner set up Tage Thompson for the tying marker. Arttu Ruotsalainen made it a two-goal advantage in the third period.
Then, it all fell apart for the Sabres. Red Wings winger Tyler Bertuzzi scored twice in a span of 90 seconds in the third period to tie the game, and Detroit defeated the Sabres in overtime, 4-3, behind a winning goal by Moritz Seider.
“It’s a learning process,” said Dahlin. “We have to see what we can do better, work on it. There’s a lot of young guys in there and we have to understand how to win and prevent them from scoring.”
The Sabres (5-4-2) are winless in four consecutive games and dropped to 4-1-1 at home this season. It was the third time in five games that Buffalo squandered a lead of two or more goals.

The Red Wings can relate to that kind of talk and those kinds of scenarios, as well as what Dahlin and coach Don Granato had to say to Buffalo Hockey Beat’s Bill Hoppe:

“It was gradual to get back into the game,” coach Don Granato said of the Sabres following their 4-3 overtime loss. “A lot of times, that’s the case when you have a long road trip, especially when you go our west and you come home, it takes a little while to reorientate. I felt it did, but I felt the process of guys fighting through, pushing through was great.”
Then Tyler Bertuzzi erased the Sabres’ lead in 90 seconds. After scoring with 6:24 left, the winger blew by Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin when he tried to poke the puck and beat Tokarski. Moritz Seider scored 2:45 into overtime, ending the Red Wings four-game winless skid.
What the heck happened to the Sabres?
“We really, really wanted to win,” said Dahlin, whose second-period power-play goal put the Sabres up 2-1. “That maybe came in our head and forced some plays.”
Granato said the Sabres’ problems started before the Red Wings’ second goal.
“They probably got uptight before the second goal,” he said. “It was the defensive zone. It wasn’t any doing of their part. It was doing on us. We just slid out of position and created, opened a seam, which is uncharacteristic. So you could look at it, say we must have been tight. It could be the only explanation for it. Because it was a simple coverage that we’ve done over and over and over. So I would have to say we were a little tight there, tense there. For what reason? There was no reason. … The cause of it was no tactical issues. We don’t have to go to practice and work anything out tomorrow. It was just a little bit tense or perceived something that wasn’t there.”

Dahlin, who’d been burned for a strong side goal by Bertuzzi, tried to take blame for his situation, but Granato didn’t want to throw his young defenseman to the wolves, as BuffaloSabres.com’s Jourdon LaBarber noted:

“We vacated what we normally do up ice,” Granato said. “We lost guys up ice and layers that I’ve talked about. When you lose the layers before Dahls, their player is able to generate a lot of speed with a huge gap. So, you’re waiting for speed to come on you.
“So, we can sit here and try to hang Dahls on it. That player’s coming and he can generate speed from 30 feet away and you’re standing there flat-footed. We left Dahls in a very tough position and it was the layers in front of him that was the mistake.”
Pius Suter scored just 16 seconds into the contest to give the Red Wings an early 1-0 lead. The Sabres surged ahead on a pair of goals scored 1:04 apart in the second period. Tage Thompson scored the first on a give-and-go play with Jeff Skinner; Dahlin netted the second with a point shot on a power play.
Arttu Ruotsalainen scored to extend the lead to 3-1 at 6:08 of the third period.
“I did like that response,” Granato said. “It was gradual to get back into the game. A lot of times, that’s the case when you have a long road trip, especially when you go our west and you come home. It takes a little while to reorientate. I felt it did, but I felt the process of guys fighting through, pushing through was great.”

The Sabres were happy with their “push back,” as they told NHL.com’s Heather Engel…

Tage Thompson tied it 1-1 at 11:32 of the second period. Jeff Skinner faked a wraparound attempt before stopping behind the net and passing the puck through Nedeljkovic’s pads to Thompson in front, who scored far side.
“He made a great play,” Thompson said of Skinner. “I just knew if I came in right off of him, right behind him, I had the opportunity. If he didn’t make that play, went behind the net the other way, I’d still be able to get there, so it was a great play.”
Dahlin gave the Sabres a 2-1 lead with a shot from the point on the power play past a screened Nedeljkovic at 12:36.Arttu Ruotsalainen got on the rebound of a Colin Miller shot at the left side of the net to extend the lead to 3-1 at 6:08 of the third period.
“I thought in the first period we came out and we had good confidence,” Blashill said. “We were playing good hockey and we had opportunities to potentially be up by a few goals that didn’t go in. And then all of a sudden they score, and they scored again. We started to dip a little bit. To dig in there late I thought was huge, led by Tyler Bertuzzi. I just thought he did a real good job of making sure that we dug in. To find a way to come back is big.”

From the Red Wings’ perspective, Tyler Bertuzzi’s second game back in the lineup was a Tour de Force, as Blashill suggested…

“‘Bert’s’ a [heck] of a player,” Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. “He’s a [heck] of a competitor, he’s a great person. I don’t know if he gets his due all the time for as good a player as he is. He’s had a big impact in the games that he’s played in, for sure, and certainly tonight he had a huge impact.”

And Moritz Seider earned due praise for his game-winner, which happened on a controversial line change (the Sabres’ broadcast crew apparently felt that the Wings changed illegally as 5 Wings’ skates were on the ice as Seider took possession of the puck), per DetroitRedWings.com’s Matthew Falkenbury:

Seider – who was named the NHL’s October Rookie of the Month earlier this week – came off the bench in overtime, avoided a check along the boards and wristed a shot past Sabres goalie Dustin Tokarski to erase a 3-1 deficit, and cap off three unanswered goals in the third period and overtime.
“It was nice getting a game-winner, but you don’t get any more pride for that,” Seider said. “It’s just one goal. I’m way more happy with the two points tonight, and the way we played, because we did it the right way in the third period.”
Lucas Raymond tallied three assists to add to his points lead among NHL rookies (13). Newcomer Pius Suter scored his second goal of the season and Alex Nedeljkovic made 29 saves to secure his second win of the season.
Buffalo’s Tage Thompson, Rasmus Dahlin and Arttu Ruotsalainen each found the back of the net, and Dustin Tokarski made 29 saves, but it wasn’t enough as Buffalo fell to 5-4-2 (12 points) overall.
“I thought it was, obviously big,” Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. “Every one in this league is big, but obviously being down 3-1 after a number of losses in a row and some tough performances, you start to lose your confidence a little bit. The dig in there late, I thought was huge, you know, led by Tyler Bertuzzi. I just thought he dug in and did a real good job, and to find a way to come back is big.”

Seider insisted that he wasn’t the main reason that the Red Wings won while speaking with the Associated Press…

Bertuzzi scored twice 1:30 apart to bring the Red Wings back late in the third period. After beating Tokarski with a wrist shot from the right circle, Bertuzzi scored his eight of the season with 5:06 left in regulation, finishing from the front of the net on a feed from Suter to tie it 3-3.
”He is the type of guy who is bringing energy to the team,” Seider said. ”And I think that’s just what we needed in that moment.”
In the overtime, Bertuzzi stole the puck from Thompson in the offensive zone and found Seider coming off the bench. The rookie muscled his way to the right circle and sent a wrist shot over Tokarski’s glove.
Seider, the sixth overall pick in the 2019 draft, is the second Red Wings player – and first defenseman – to score his first NHL goal in overtime. Mud Bruneteau did it on Dec. 14, 1935.
”It’s always nice getting a game-winner,” Seider said. ”But you don’t get any more excited for that. It’s just one goal. I’m way more happy with the two points tonight, and the way we played.”
Bertuzzi joined Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl as the only NHL players to record four points twice this season.

Seider pointed out that the Wings’ win was essential, as he told the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan…

“I was just trying to protect the puck and take it toward the net,” Seider said. “I don’t know if the goalie was cheating short side, but I saw a little hole and luckily it went in.”
Ending the losing streak was huge for the Wings, who didn’t play well in the last two losses in Montreal and Boston.
“It was real good to bounce back,” Seider said. “We had a couple of tough ones on the road, not a great performance in Montreal and Boston, so it was good to finish the trip strong and now get some points at home during the next four games.”

And the coach did give some praise to Nedeljkovic as well:

“Part of goaltending is finding ways to win hockey games and he (Nedeljkovic) found a way to dig in at the right moments and that’s what we need from him for sure,” Blashill said.

Seider told Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff that his goal wasn’t that big a deal:

Though 11 games had passsed, Seider wasn’t the least bit worried that his time to light a red lamp would finally arrive.
“We play 82 games so hopefully at some point one will get in,” Seider said. “I wasn’t looking for something, I wasn’t shooting for something. I was just happy to finally get it.”

Instead, Seider looked toward Sunday’s game vs. Vegas…

“It’s nice getting the game-winner, but you don’t get any more pride for that,” Seider said. “So it’s just one goal. I’m way more happy with the two points tonight and the way we played, because we did it the right way in the third period. I think we can be proud of ourselves. We just got to turn this page and look forward to tomorrow.”

And he praised his teammate, fellow rookie Lucas Raymond:

His Red Wings teammates have taken to calling rookie left-winger Lucas Raymond by the nickname Razor. He’s certainly been razor sharp all season long.
He was at his best on Saturday. The NHL leader in rookie scoring with 13 points, Raymond dished out assists on three of the club’s four goals.
“There’s a reason he was drafted that high,” Seider said of Raymond, the fourth player chosen in the 2020 NHL entry draft. “I think he’s showing what he’s got. We know what his abilities are in the locker room. Obviously, he’s just doing his job but he’s doing it phenomenally.”
Raymond is the first Red Wings rookie to be posting a three-assist game since Bertuzzi did it in 2018.

Not bad, kid, not bad.

Multimedia:

Highlights: Sportsnet posted an 8:22 highlight clip: