Jarvis breaks tie in 3rd period, Hurricanes defeat Sabres

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Seth Jarvis broke a tie with a power-play goal in the third period, and the Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Buffalo Sabres 2-1 at Lenovo Center on Monday.

Jarvis scored at 2:10, just seven seconds after Buffalo defenseman Owen Power was penalized for tripping Carolina forward Logan Stankoven. Jarvis capitalized on a sharp-angle rebound after Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen stopped his shot from the right hash marks.

Andrei Svechnikov had a goal and an assist, and Sebastian Aho had two assists for the Hurricanes (31-15-4), who have won three in a row and are 7-1-1 in the past nine games.

Brandon Bussi, a 27-year-old in his first NHL season, made 17 saves to improve to 18-3-1.

“It wasn’t like, for a couple periods, there weren’t a ton of opportunities,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “But they were all like, that could be the difference, that could be the difference. (Luukkonen) made some good saves, too, so it was kind of a battle there in the net, and obviously our guy came out on top.”

Rasmus Dahlin scored, and Luukkonen made 26 saves for the Sabres (26-17-5), who have lost their past two games (0-1-1). It was the first of a five-game road trip that continues at the Nashville Predators on Tuesday.

“There were a couple opportunities that I think we could have shot the puck, but we deferred to look for something off the back post,” Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff said. “There was hard compete by both teams. It was a hard hockey game, and I thought that last 40 [minutes] we pushed through.”

Dahlin gave the Sabres a 1-0 lead at 1:33 of the first period when he gathered the puck at the red line, skated the puck into the offensive zone and scored on a snap shot from the right face-off circle over Bussi’s glove.

Svechnikov tied it 1-1 at 7:04. After Sean Walker forced a turnover in the neutral zone, Aho skated to the right circle before making no-look pass to Svechnikov for a backdoor tap-in at the left post.

“We’re just trying to go back door hard and try to win that space,” Svechnikov said. “Obviously, ‘Fish’ (Aho) is one of the best playmakers. I knew he was going to make that pass.”

Bussi kept the game tied with a highlight-reel save at 8:29 of the second period, lunging across the crease to glove Tage Thompson’s one-timer during a 2-on-0. Thompson passed to Jason Zucker at the right post before taking a return pass.

“I hadn’t seen a lot of work up until that point,” Bussi said. “I felt good prior to that, but I think it gave the arena, the team and myself a little bit of extra juice.

“Granted, I thought we played really well today. For close to 60 minutes, we were playing our game and limiting their chances for the most part.”

Thompson, who had a game-high six shots on goal, tipped his cap to the Carolina goalie.

“I felt like I had the whole net, and his glove came out of nowhere,” Thompson said. “It’s tough. I think that built momentum for them, but we had plenty of chances.

“He was just feeling it tonight. When you run into a hot goalie, it’s sometimes frustrating to keep getting those Grade-A looks when they’re not going in.”

Later in the second, Bussi made a left pad save on Dahlin (11:32), stopped Power from the slot (11:49) and turned away Thompson’s backhand at the top of the crease (13:19).

“That’s what’s so great about him -- he stays in games and waits for his opportunities,” Jarvis said. “He made three or four unbelievable saves. It builds a lot of confidence in our team, It gets the building going, which is always nice.”

NOTES: Carolina has won 13 straight here against Buffalo, the longest active home win streak in the NHL against a single opponent. … Brind’Amour said Hurricanes forward Eric Robinson will be “out for a little while” after he left the game in the first because of an upper-body injury. Robinson will be re-evaluated on Tuesday … Jarvis also had five hits in 21:43 of ice time. … Svechnikov (five goals, two assists) and Aho (seven assists) each have seven points during a three-game point streak. … Dahlin extended his point streak to five games (three goals, three assists).