Kraken downs Sabres, 6-4

The Buffalo Sabres came up short in Monday’s back-and-forth contest at Climate Pledge Arena, losing 6-4 to the Seattle Kraken.

Buffalo overcame a two-goal deficit in the second period before falling behind once again. Quick responses were the story of the afternoon for the Kraken, who on three occasions matched Sabres goals within a minute.

Tage Thompson (1+1), Jason Zucker (1+1) and Peyton Krebs (0+2) had multi-point games for Buffalo, with Jack Quinn, and Alex Tuch scoring the Sabres’ other goals. Forward Jiri Kulich, returning from a lower-body injury for his first game since Jan. 6, skated 16:26 and tallied a game-high six shots on goal.

Sabres goaltender Devon Levi made his first NHL appearance since Dec. 15 and made 28 saves on 33 shots.

Jared McCann had a goal and two assists while John Hayden, Chandler Stephenson, Matty Beniers, Jamie Oleksiak and Adam Larsson also scored for Seattle. Ryker Evans tallied a pair of assists, and goalie Joey Daccord stopped 25 of 29 shots.

The Sabres went 1-for-3 on the power play and killed one of two shorthanded situations.

HOW IT HAPPENED

First Period

Quinn gave Buffalo a 1-0 lead at 5:07, tossing a shot from the center of the blue line that redirected off McCann and past Daccord.

But the Kraken responded just 26 seconds later as Hayden collected a rebound in the slot and beat Levi on the glove side.

Seattle took a 2-1 lead on Stephenson’s goal at 11:06. The Kraken maintained possession after a dump-in, made a couple passes in front and found an open Stephenson at the right circle.

On a late-period 2-on-1, Levi pushed across to his right and denied Andre Burakovsky of a third Kraken goal. Buffalo responded with a 2-on-1 of its own in the final minute but Daccord stopped Connor Clifton’s wide-angle shot.

The Sabres tallied 12 first-period shots on goal – including three in the final 80 seconds – to Seattle’s 10, but the Kraken held a 7-3 edge in high-danger scoring chances, per Natural Stat Trick.

Read more at nhl.com/sabres.