Dylan Cozens scored two short-handed goals and Jeff Skinner and Owen Power each had a goal and two assists as the Buffalo Sabres cruised to a 7-2 victory over the visiting Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday night.
Casey Mittelstadt had a goal and an assist, Eric Robinson had two assists and Zemgus Girgensons and Kyle Okposo also scored for Buffalo, which won for the fifth time in its last six games.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen finished with 22 saves to win for the seventh time in his last nine starts.
William Karlsson and Brendan Brisson scored goals and Paul Cotter had two assists for Vegas, which lost for the sixth time in its last nine games (2-6-1). Logan Thompson made 28 saves.
The Golden Knights fell into third place in the Pacific Division behind Edmonton, a 2-1 winner earlier Saturday at Seattle.
Buffalo jumped out to a 1-0 lead at the 1:55 mark of the first period when Skinner stole the puck from Karlsson and fired a spinning wrist shot from the high slot into the top right corner for his team-leading 20th goal of the season.
Cozens stole the puck from Shea Theodore and scored a short-handed breakaway goal 54 seconds into the second period to make it 2-0. But the Golden Knights answered just 52 seconds later with a power-play goal by Brisson, who buried a crossing pass from Nicolas Roy into the top right corner for his second goal.
The Golden Knights tied it at 2-2 a few minutes later on a one-timer by Karlsson from the bottom of the right circle off a Jonathan Marchessault feed. It was the fifth goal in the last seven games for Karlsson.
Buffalo regained the lead at the 14:46 mark of the period when Girgensons clanged in a wrist shot from the right circle off the far post after Robinson stole the puck along the boards from Alex Pietrangelo.
Okposo increased Buffalo’s lead to 4-2 at the 2:20 mark of the third period when he batted in a sharp-angle rebound of a Skinner shot that caromed in off the left pad of Thompson.
Power made it 5-2 with a slap shot from the right point through traffic and Thompson’s pads. Mittelstadt followed with a power-play goal at the 12:18 mark, firing a wrist shot from the left point past Okposo’s screen and Thompson’s glove side.
Cozens ended the scoring with his second short-handed goal with 2:48 to go, banging in a shot off Thompson’s right leg pad.
–Field Level Media
