Lindy Ruff went with Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, as projected, and Colten Ellis got the night off after his 28-save loss to Ottawa. The goalie the preview worried about was the steadier one. Luukkonen saw 26 shots, allowed 2 and finished at .923. On a night when Columbus was playing on the second half of a back-to-back, Luukkonen didn't need to steal anything. He just needed to avoid giving it away, and he did.
Most of the damage came from Buffalo's offense, the same group that managed 1 goal against Ottawa and had scored 3 or fewer in 4 of its last 5. Columbus actually scored first in the shot count's sense of things, getting 1 in the 1st, but Buffalo answered with 2 in that period. Then the Sabres scored 3 more in the 2nd and outshot the Blue Jackets by 11 over the full game. For a team that couldn't hold a 3rd-period lead Wednesday, building a cushion that didn't need protecting was the fix.
The line score shows exactly what tired legs look like. Columbus kept pace for 1 period, got buried in the 2nd and only scored again in the 3rd once Buffalo had a 5-1 lead and could relax. The Blue Jackets won 2 straight at Nationwide Arena on their own legs, including 65 minutes and a shootout against Dallas the night before. They didn't have much left 24 hours later in a building that wasn't theirs. Zach Werenski, the hero of the Dallas game, was a big part of the Columbus case going in, but the box score search didn't turn up the scoring summary, so the only clear part of the Columbus story is that the 2 goals came 1 per period around a scoreless 2nd.
Buffalo did all this without Konsta Helenius, Justin Danforth, Matt Grzelcyk or Alex Lyon, so the thin center depth the preview flagged wasn't the problem it looked like it would be. The Sabres are 8-5-3 now and 4-1 over their last 5. That includes 3 straight road wins on the West Coast, the Ottawa loss, and a 5-2 win that looked more like the Anaheim shootout than the 1-goal nights around it. Buffalo picked the right night to get its scoring back. Columbus caught it on the worst possible night to have its backup in net.
