LAS VEGAS (AP) — Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 41 saves and the Buffalo Sabres beat the Vegas Golden Knights 3-2 Monday night.
Jeff Skinner, Tage Thompson and Lawrence Pilut scored to help Buffalo get its first win at Vegas after coming in 0-3-1 all-time. The Sabres improved to 6-2-1 in December, after going 4-9-1 the previous month, and moved into a fourth-place tie with Florida in the Atlantic Division with 34 points.
Chandler Stephenson and Reilly Smith scored for Vegas, while Adin Hill made 15 saves. The Golden Knights dropped to 8-9-1 at home. The Golden Knights have scored just 11 goals in their last seven home games — including six losses.
After a rather pedestrian first period that was filled with heavy hits and heated exchanges, the Sabres got on the board early in the second.
Former Golden Knight Alex Tuch skated into the zone with linemate Thompson strategically trailing to draw the coverage. Tuch sent a pass to the left lane for Skinner, who fired it past Hill to give Buffalo a 1-0 lead at 1:53.
The Sabres extended the lead to two goals when they took advantage of a Vegas turnover in its own zone. Thompson took Casey Fitzgerald’s pass to the circle, dangled around sliding Golden Knights defenseman Nic Hague and had the patience to wait for Vegas’ Phil Kessel to skate by before lasering a shot by Hill at 7:15.
Pilut increased the lead to 3-0 with 6 1/2 minutes left in the second when the Sabres won a faceoff and he took Kyle Okposo’s pass at the point and ripped a slap shot from just inside the blue line.
Vegas had a golden opportunity to get on the board late in the second when captain Mark Stone skated in alone on a breakaway but was stymied by Luukkonen.
Moments after Hill made a crucial save on Tuch’s breakaway early in the third period, Stephenson took a feed from Michael Amadio, raced in untouched on a breakaway and ignited the crowd with Vegas’ first goal of the game at 3:54.
Vegas’ Smith came close to scoring his fifth goal in three games when he skated in for a backdoor one-timer but was foiled when Luukkonen stretched across to make the save during a penalty kill.
Luukkonen made five saves during Vegas’ power-play opportunity. Smith made up for it late in the third by beating Luukkonen through traffic with 2:21 remaining to make it a one-goal game.
UP NEXT:
Sabres host Tampa Bay on Friday night.
