Game 23: One sour point

The Buffalo Sabres 4-3 overtime loss to the Vancouver Canucks saw emotions run hot.

BUFFALO — If you repeat the mantra about when being in doubt to get a game to overtime, then the Buffalo Sabres accomplished that goal in dramatic fashion. The unfortunate part about holding to that belief is that winning the game is the preferred outcome and that’s what eluded them on Friday afternoon in a 4-3 overtime loss to the Vancouver Canucks.

“It’s a heck of a point,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “We had some good looks, even early second. You look at some of the looks that Tage (had)… we just didn’t quite make the next play the whole game. The next play was there. We didn’t connect on that next play. Our power play was a little bit out of sync, didn’t connect on plays it should’ve connected on. We had opportunities to get that two-goal lead but didn’t get it. We let them hang around, and you end up in a game like that. They’re a tough club – we knew that going in. These last two games have been just tough, hard hockey.”

After getting goalie’d by Filip Gustavsson and the Minnesota Wild, the Sabres took a valiant, yet frustrating, point from the Canucks. Getting to overtime is good since, as we’ve learned over time, loser points get teams to the playoffs more than a well-played regulation loss would. But this one felt like a game where two points would’ve/could’ve/should’ve been had and that’s where the bad taste left in the mouth of the players afterward lingers.

"We didn't have any quit and we played with desperation,” Dylan Cozens said. “It's on me to take that penalty there and put ourselves in that situation, but the boys got it back and we got a point, but it sucks to not finish that off."

More ahead on those penalties, the comeback, and the frustrating overtime that decided the game.