Sabres 3, Hurricanes 2 (OT)

The Carolina Hurricanes found themselves in familiar territory as they battled their way to overtime for the fourth straight game but they came up short this time as they fell to the Buffalo Sabres, 3-2 in OT on Saturday afternoon in Buffalo.

Jack Eichel took a long pass from Evander Kane, broke in all alone on Cam Ward, and beat the Carolina goalie with a nifty move with just one second left for the game-winner.

Ward ended up making 21 saves on 24 shots for the visitors.

After a scoreless first period, Phillip Di Giuseppe banged in the rebound of another Jeff Skinner shot to continue his scoring streak early in the second.  Di Giuseppe now has points in four straight games and has six goals for the season.

Skinner had battled his way to the net to create the play.

Just 1:10 later, a Carolina turnover led to a wide open Marcus Foligno and the Sabres forward made no mistake to tie it up.

To the start off the third, Jack Eichel would then give the home team a 2-1 lead as beneficiary of a nice passing play, but Carolina did not give up.

Midway through the third period, Victor Rask took a patient pass from Riley Nash and backhanded a shot over Chad Johnson to tie the game.  It was a powerplay goal for Rask and his 16th overall of the season.

The Sabres got close again, including one time when Eichel tried another wraparound, but Ward, with the help of a diving Ryan Murphy, stopped the play late in regulation.

After a pretty evenly played extra period, Eichel finished the game with his 22nd goal of the season.

The loss keeps the Hurricanes three points outside of a playoff spot behind eighth place Detoit and two points behind ninth place Philadelphia.  Both teams have games in hand on Carolina.

Next up will be another roadie against the Washington Capitals on Tuesday night.

Game Notes:

• The Canes outshot the Sabres 30-24.  Elias Lindholm had a team high five.
• The team won 64% of their faceoffs led by Rask who won 83% and Lindholm who won 70%.
• Skinner was credited with a game high three takeaways and remains one of the league leaders in that category.
• Once again Jaccob Slavin led the club and had 26:40 of ice time.
• Event Summary