OTTAWA, ON – Robin Lehner made 34 saves to win his first game with the Buffalo Sabres, 3-2 against the Ottawa Senators, the team that drafted him, at Canadian Tire Centre on Tuesday.
Rookie Jack Eichel scored two goals and the Sabres (20-26-4) ended a three-game losing streak. Evander Kane also scored.
This was Lehner’s fourth game since returning from a sprained ankle he sustained opening night in his Sabres debut against the Senators Oct. 8 and his first win (1-3-0). He missed 39 games.
Lehner entered Tuesday with a .936 save percentage and 2.36 goals against average.
“It feels really good,” Lehner said. “I feel like I’ve been playing really well, getting better every game and every practice and starting to find my identity a little bit, how I should play the game. I got a little deeper in the net and tried to read pucks a little bit more, not jumping all over the place. It was nice to get a win, especially here. It’s a lot of memories here and a great team over there.”
Lehner also had an assist on Eichel’s first goal, firing the puck up ice and catching the Senators on a line change.
“Especially here because me and the goalie coach (Rick Wamsley) here always argued I can’t play the puck, so it was perfect,” Lehner said.
Lehner, 24, was the Senators second pick (46th overall) in the 2009 draft. He played 86 games for them between 2010 and 2015 and was 30-36-13 with a .914 save percentage and 2.88 goals against average. Lehner was traded to the Sabres along with center David Legwand June 26 for the 21st pick in the 2015 NHL Draft.
“It’s great to see him rewarded,” Eichel said. “He played great in Colorado and wasn’t rewarded for his efforts. He played great at home and he took another loss. It’s great to come into Ottawa, his old team, and play the way he did. He was calm, he was collected, he controlled the game for us and he backstopped the win.”
Lehner became the odd man out in the Senators crease with the emergence of Andrew Hammond last season behind No. 1 goaltender Craig Anderson.
Erik Karlsson and Bobby Ryan scored for the Senators (23-21-6) and Anderson made 19 saves.
Senators forward Jean-Gabriel appeared to have tied the game at the end of the third period with Ottawa on the power play and Anderson the bench for the extra attacker, but a review confirmed that time had expired before the puck crossed the goal line.
That came after the Senators had a couple of chances when time wound down. Lehner made a glove save on Karlsson, who scored the Senators first goal. Sabres coach Dan Bylsma used his coach’s challenge for goalie interference, but it was ruled a good goal.
“I think the first goal they got was questionable, so (Karlsson) was not going to get another one,” Lehner said.
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Ottawa has lost nine of their past 14 games, all in regulation, and are three points out of the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference. The loss sends them into the All-Star break on a sour note.
“Especially after what we did Sunday, where you see a complete 60 minutes,” Ryan said. “We had a game where we had no passengers. I don’t know if that was the case tonight or not, but it’s tough to have that let down between those two.
“One step forward, one step back. It’s .500 hockey, it’s probably a dip below .500 hockey for the last little while for us. We’re not making the playoffs if we don’t figure it out quickly. And very quickly.”
Senators coach Dave Cameron said his team’s effort was “second tier.”
“We didn’t play until we were behind,” he said. “Probably the word to describe it the best from my point of view is ‘frustrating’. You see them perform the way they did against a real good team in the Rangers, and it’s just a huge drop off.
“For me it’s almost like it’s too hard for some guys to play the right way every night. When we drop off like that, and that’s not the first time we’ve done it, I’m starting to think it might be too hard for guys to be able to play in the National Hockey League at a high level.”
Eichel used his speed to score his 15th and 16th goals of the season. He burst around Senators defenseman Jared Cowen to score on a wraparound to tie the game 2-2 in the second period and drove to the net to put the Sabres up 3-2 early in the third when Anderson and forward Chris Neil lost track of the puck and it popped out to Eichel at the left post.
Ryan put the Senators ahead 2-1 at 10:03 of the second period. It was his fourth goal in five games.
Kane tied the game 1-1 at 11:12 of the first period when Cowen misjudged the carom off the endboards when he attempted to pass the puck to Chris Wideman. It hit the side of the net and Kane swooped in and knocked the loose puck by Anderson.
Karlsson opened the scoring at 6:42 of the first period when he crashed the net and knocked in a rebound for his 11th goal.
Eichel said the win sends the Sabres into the All-Star break feeling confident.
“To get a win like that, we came back from behind twice in the game and we were able to lock it down in the third period and get a win and that’s what good teams do,” he said. “It was great to be rewarded for our efforts.”
