Quinn strikes twice as Sabres shut out Senators

Thursday was a happy homecoming for Sabres forward Jack Quinn, whose pair of early goals led Buffalo to a 4-0 shutout of the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre.

Quinn, an Ottawa native, had plenty of guests in attendance to watch him give the Sabres a 2-0 lead in the first period.

“Pretty cool night to get those,” Quinn said.

First, 10:17 into the game, he and Ryan McLeod raced past the Ottawa defense for a partial 2-on-0 rush. The speedy McLeod could’ve held onto the puck for a shot, but he instead passed to the open Quinn, who ripped a shot past Senators goaltender Anton Forsberg.

“Quinner’s a sniper,” McLeod said. “Get him the puck when you can.”

Three minutes later, Quinn escaped the penalty box after his second hooking penalty of the period. Peyton Krebs collected a blocked shot in the defensive zone and dished a stretch pass to the streaking Quinn – another tally for the hot-of-late sniper.

Through 24 games this season, the 23-year-old had scored just one empty-net goal. Beginning with a two-goal effort Dec. 15 in Toronto, however, Quinn has recorded six goals and five assists in his last 10 games.

“I think my game is to be an offensive producer and score,” Quinn said. “Some tough times at the start of the year, things were feeling a lot harder for me than years before, for some reason, but it’s nice to see some of the work pay off.”

“(With) all the ups and downs he’s gone through already in his career, I feel like every bit of success is earned for him,” said Sabres goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, who made 35 saves for his second shutout of the season. “When he scores, everybody likes it, everybody gets energy from it, so it was good to see.”

Dylan Cozens extended the lead to 3-0 early in the second period with his ninth goal of the season, punishing defenseman Nick Jensen for a defensive-zone turnover.

After stoning Ottawa on some early scoring chances, Luukkonen sat back and watched Buffalo defend its lead – the Sabres have often struggled to maintain third-period leads this season, but not Thursday.

“We didn’t go out there just to try to survive – we kept going where we left off in the second period” Luukkonen said. “… No game is perfect, but I feel like we went there confident, we knew that we were the better team tonight and took care of business.”

The Senators outshot the Sabres 16-5 in the third period, but with just two high-danger scoring chances, per Natural Stat Trick.

“I feel like defense played a really big part of it today,” Luukkonen added. “I know it’s a shutout, but I feel like it’s a team effort every time. They were clearing rebounds and boxing out well tonight.”