Cody Eakin scored in regulation before Tage Thompson and Arttu Ruotsalainen scored in the shootout to lift the host Buffalo Sabres to a 2-1 win against the Arizona Coyotes on Saturday afternoon.
Dustin Tokarski made 20 saves for Buffalo, which has won its first two games after finishing with the fewest points in the NHL last season.
Andrew Ladd scored, and Karel Vejmelka made 32 saves for Arizona.
Thompson and Nick Schmaltz of Arizona made their shootout attempts in the first round, and Ruotsalainen buried his attempt to start the second before Tokarski stopped Phil Kessel’s try with his pads.
Victor Olofsson of the Sabres was stopped to start the third round, but Clayton Keller of the Coyotes missed, clinching the win for Buffalo.
Buffalo had some chances to end the game in overtime, topped by a shot from in close by Olofsson that was saved by Vejmelka at 1:41.
Ladd gave the Coyotes a 1-0 lead at 13:51 of the first period.
Tokarski tried to clear the puck along the boards but Johan Larsson kept it in the Buffalo zone. He brought the puck back below the goal line and then passed it to Ryan Dzingel behind the net. He quickly fed Ladd in front of the crease for the one-timer.
Eakin drew a hooking penalty on Jay Beagle with 48 seconds left in the first period and then tied the score 1-1 with a power-play goal at 1:05 of the second.
Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin brought the puck out of his zone and fed the puck ahead to Drake Caggiula cutting down the middle of the Arizona zone. Caggiula went one-on-one with Vejmelka, who made the initial save, but Eakin came in behind and pushed the puck into the net.
Buffalo was without two of its top players, who were injured in the 5-1 season-opening win against the visiting Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.
Sabres center Casey Mittelstadt sustained an upper-body injury and defenseman Henri Jokiharju has a lower-body injury. Both are expected to miss approximately two weeks.
–Field Level Media
