BUFFALO, N.Y. --- The Buffalo Sabres prospects hosted the Ottawa Senators prospects at LECOM Harborcenter on September 19th. Linus Weissbach, Oskari Laaksonen, and Lukas Rousek were the three sabres to wear an A this weekend, they were the three players who played significant time under Amerks Head Coach Seth Appert.
“I think that Linus, (O)skari, and Lukas were really good leaders” - Coach Appert
Other notable performance throughout the game include Matt Savoie who posted two third period goals to help seal the Buffalo win. Aleksandr Kisakov had three assists on the day showing great ability with the puck in his control, which was noted by Coach Appert during the post game press conference.
“When he has the puck he’s at his best” - Coach Appert
Ottawa came out of the gates firing in the first, Roby Järventie scored within the first minute of the game to give Ottawa the lead. Less than five minutes later The Sabres caught Goaltender Jakob Robillard out of position, Kisakov slotted a pass right in front of net from behind the goal and Weissbach tapped it home on the empty net. That warranted a response from The Senators and they gave one, Angus Crookshank slotted one home from outside on the left to propel Ottawa into the lead 7:04 into the game. The game started to slow down a bit after The Senators second goal but the momentum of play was with The Sabres and they weren’t finished for the period yet. 14:31 in, Rousek snagged a rebound goal off Robillard’s leg. The sabres took things into the break tied up and with momentum on their side.
That momentum rolled with Buffalo as they came into the second period, it didn’t show up on the score sheet at first though. They were winning puck battles and overall outplaying Ottawa. 8:01 into the period their efforts finally payed off as Filip Cederqvist teed it up perfectly for Tyson Kozak as they came down the ice on a 2-1 fast break. The Sabres continued to show they had the edge throughout the period, the first penalty of the day came from Vsevolod Komarov as he made a last ditch effort to stop a high percentage chance on goal for The Senators. Buffalo was successful in their penalty kill and continued to try to find their way to the back of the net but they couldn’t do it again in the second. With 50 seconds left in the period, Ottawa Leveled things as Crookshank scored his second, leaving things tied up once again leading to a six man fight just before the break.
In the third period The Buffalo momentum that flowed throughout the game finally came to fruition. They started out on the power play following the fight, however Ottawa managed a successful penalty kill. Less than two minutes later Savoie scored his first of the day after Kisakov put in all the work with the assist across the goal. Not long after, Buffalo went onto another power play and still couldn’t come through with the extra man. Third time was the charm though as Buffalo went into another power play. Kisakov slid the puck into a wide open Savoie directly in front of the net and there was no question. Four minutes later Cederqvist put away a goal for himself off Robillard’s pads. The game was iced with six and a half minutes left following the three goal run from Buffalo.
The Sabres wrapped up The 2022 Prospect Challenge 3-0 and will be happy with their prospects performances as some will return to their lower league teams and hopefully many will end up with The Rochester Americans.