‘Strong and steady’ Reimer keeps it rolling in Ottawa

OTTAWA – James Reimer’s stabilizing presence in net has played a leading role in the Buffalo Sabres’ recent success. That continued Tuesday, when his 33 saves highlighted a 5-2 win over the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre.

Reimer faced heavy pressure for much of the night as Ottawa led 35-22 in shots, 91-41 in shot attempts and 14-8 in high-danger scoring chances, per Natural Stat Trick. He was especially sharp in the first period as the Sabres built an early lead, and again late in the third as they defended it.

“Reims is just strong and steady,” said forward Peyton Krebs. “That guy does the same thing every single night: puts in a good effort. He’s a veteran, he knows how to do it and we’re seeing that. He’s been a good goalie in this league for a long time, and it’s showing.”

Used sparingly for much of the season, Reimer has recently – apparently, at least – claimed the starting job. The 37-year-old has started six of the last eight games and gone 5-1-0 in that span.

Reimer was busy early, facing 12 shots in the opening period and helping Buffalo emerge with a 2-0 lead. He stopped Ridly Greig on a 2-on-1 rush with the game scoreless and made four shorthanded saves – including on a one-time blast from Fabian Zetterlund at the right dot – as the Sabres killed off three first-period penalties.

“When we made the early puck mistakes in the first period, turned it over at the blue line, gave them a 2-on-1, he made key saves that allowed us to jump off to the lead,” said Sabres coach Lindy Ruff.

“You look at that first period, our best players played like three minutes, because we had six minutes of penalty-killing time, and that always hurts,” Ruff added. “Again, we’ve talked about discipline. Discipline wasn’t good enough in the first period. Threw a puck over the glass, we had a careless high stick; those are penalties that, if you want to be a consistent winning road team, you don’t take those in the visiting building.”

But Buffalo survived those miscues while allowing very few quality scoring opportunities.

“I think we’re just committing to our gameplan,” Krebs said. “They’ve got some good players over there that can make plays, and we want to make sure that they don’t have time to do that. [Assistant coach Marty Wilford has] been doing a good job of really giving us an identity on the PK, and we’re just trying to do our best to get it down the ice.”

Buffalo’s next, final and most crucial penalty kill came late in the third period. Ottawa trailed 4-2 and had further ramped up the pressure, producing several near-miss scoring chances. On one, Reimer fully extended his left pad to rob an uncovered Tim Stutzle. With 3:35 remaining, though, the Senators drew a tripping call.

“Got a little bit loose at the end, like in the last maybe five minutes, where we got caught on a couple of long shifts – but [Reimer] was there,” Ruff said.

The Senators pulled Linus Ullmark to attack 6-on-4, but at 17:21, nearly halfway through the power play, Ryan McLeod collected a loose puck in the slot and fired it down the ice into the empty net. Bowen Byram celebrated accordingly in the box.

The Sabres' surviving that situation provided yet another example of their growing comfort under late-game pressure.

“Right now, there’s no panic on the bench,” Tage Thompson said. “I think there’s a lot of confidence that we can close games out, and recently we’ve been getting results, too, so that just helps with the confidence.”

Here’s more from the win.

1. Alex Tuch opened the scoring midway through the first period, extending his goal-scoring streak to four games. Engaged net-front with Dylan Cozens, he corralled the rebound from Mattias Samuelsson’s shot and tucked it inside the post. The play netted Samuelsson’s first of two assists in the game.

Moments after Reimer denied Shane Pinto on an odd-man rush, Rasmus Dahlin doubled the Sabres’ lead. The captain’s one-time, short-side rocket – his 14th goal of the season – beat Ullmark from up high after Jack Quinn created the chance with his work down low. Quinn wrestled the puck away from Thomas Chabot behind the net and fed it to the open Dahlin.

The primary assist gave Quinn his ninth point (4+5) in the last five games.

Then, midway through the second period, a beautiful 4-on-4 give-and-go extended the lead to 3-0. Thompson dangled into the slot and made a backhand pass to JJ Peterka on the right flank. With Ullmark overcommitting to his left, Peterka passed back to Thompson for an open-net one-timer and his 39th goal.

“Honestly, I didn’t really realize I had that much time,” Thompson said. “As soon as I got around the first guy, I just heard JJ yelling for it and, yeah, he made a great play back to me. I think they’re cheating that pass, Ullmark slid over quite a bit and JJ makes a great little touch pass right back to me. So, great play by him.”

2. The Senators wouldn’t go quietly, though. Claude Giroux got them on the board 1:10 after Thompson’s goal.

In the third, Krebs made a center-ice steal and sped off for a breakaway goal, his ninth of the season, to restore the three-goal Sabres lead.

“I’m just trying to play a good neutral zone,” Krebs said. “I’ve been working on that a lot. Just trying to break up plays and force him wide. Saw that he wanted to make a D-to-D pass; I got the puck and put it in the net.”

Jake Sanderson responded just 23 seconds later, though, narrowing the lead to 4-2 and tilting the ice back in Ottawa’s favor for its late push.

"I think we’re locked into a better style," Ruff said, asked about his team's recent success in defending late leads. "We’re not giving up the crazy chances. I think [our] managing the puck has been better. I think inside the zone (we've been) a lot more aggressive. We’re locked in to how we feel we need to finish the game."

3. Sabres forward Tyson Kozak exited with a lower-body injury, last leaving the ice with 6:14 remaining in the second period. Ruff provided no additional information on his status.

Up next

The Sabres return to KeyBank Center for a three-game homestand, which begins Saturday versus Tampa Bay. Tickets are available here.

Coverage on MSG begins at 6:30 p.m. with puck drop scheduled for 7.