BUFFALO, N.Y. — Rasmus Ristolainen and Marco Scandella scored Saturday to lead Buffalo to a 3-2 victory over the Los Angeles Kings, ending the Sabres’ three-game losing streak.
Buffalo bounced back from a 6-1 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday and improved to 17-13-7.
Adrian Kempe and Dustin Brown scored for Los Angeles. Kempe’s goal came 1:32 into the second. He found an opening in the high slot for his seventh goal of the season and his third in the last three games.
Ristolainen opened the scoring for the Sabres 7:35 into the period. He finished off a rebound from the left circle after two quick shots from Jeff Skinner.
Scandella gave Buffalo a 2-1 lead with 3:12 left in the second, blasting a shot from the point that deflected off Kings defenseman Drew Doughty.
Victor Oloffson added an empty-net goal with 1:33 remaining. Brown quickly scored afterward to again make it a one-goal game with 37.7 seconds remaining, finishing a pretty cross-ice feed by Doughty. Los Angeles’ comeback effort ended there, however, with the Sabres finishing off the game in the Kings end.
Goalie Linus Ullmark was terrific for Buffalo, making 25 saves. He extended his glove to make an excellent save at the end of the second period on Anze Kopitar and robbed Sean Walker midway through the third from close range. Ullmark also made a key save with 4:17 remaining on a rush to the net by Austin Wagner.
Jonathan Quick was solid in the other end for the Kings with 25 saves.
NOTES: Kings C Trevor Lewis was injured 1:31 into the game and did not return. Lewis went in to hit Sabres C Rasmus Asplund and took the worst of collision. The Kings said Lewis has an upper-body injury. ... D Kurtis MacDermid and RW Matt Luff were scratched for Los Angeles. ... LW Johan Larsson, D Colin Miller and LW Conor Sheary were scratched for Buffalo. Larsson is dealing with a lower-body injury. ... This was the second and final game between these teams this season.
UP NEXT:
Kings: Return home to play the St. Louis Blues on Monday.
Sabres: On the road against Ottawa on Monday.
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