EDMONTON — Eric Comrie made an NHL career-high 46 saves for the Buffalo Sabers in a 4-2 win against the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place on Tuesday.
Comrie, an Edmonton native, made his first start in his hometown. He made 22 saves in the third period for his first win with the Sabers since signing a two-year contract on July 13.
“They [defensemen] were awesome clearing traffic; they were outstanding making sure I could see everything,” Comrie said. “Even a lot of the backdoor plays, it was surprising how many times they got sticks on the plays to make sure they weren’t executing the plays they wanted to execute. They did an awesome job and I owe a lot of credit to those guys tonight.”
Rasmus Dahlin, Tage Thompson, JJ Peterka and Alex Tuch scored for Buffalo (2-1-0).
Video: BUF@EDM: Thompson winds through traffic to break tie
Darnell Nurse and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored, and Stuart Skinner made 20 saves for Edmonton (1-2-0), which has lost its past two games.
“Comrie played well,” Oilers captain Connor McDavid said. “We definitely threw everything we had at him in the first and third. I thought we gifted them maybe two goals there; the kid (Thompson) makes a [heck] of a play on one, and the other is just a straight gift. We knew they had that talent and they were going to hurt you if we did stuff like that, and they certainly did that.”
Dahlin scored on a 4-on-3 power play at 4:00 of the first period to make it 1-0. He collected a face-off win by Casey Mittelstadt and beat Skinner with a wrist shot from the top of the circles.
“It wasn’t pretty, but we found a way to win, and that’s what this league is all about,” Dahlin said. “We just dug in in the third period and [Comrie] kept us in the game. It was a really good team effort and we have a lot of guys that come in here and compete hard, so it’s really good for the future.”
Video: BUF@EDM: Dahlin rips home PPG right off draw
Nurse scored 23 seconds later at 4:23 on a 2-on-1 rush Leon Draisaitl to tie it 1-1.
“Anytime you lose, there is no satisfaction in this room, there are no moral victories,” Nurse said. “We are not happy being 1-2 to start the year. We can say all we want, but we have got to come out and show it on the ice. We made a lot about the need to have a good start to the game. , and I thought our start was better than the first two [games]”
Thompson gave the Sabers a 2-1 lead 44 seconds into the second period. He rounded Nurse on a rush down the right wing, cut back inside against Skinner and tucked the puck into the net.
“I was just driving with some speed down the wing and saw some open ice in the middle,” Thompson said. “Once I got my backhand, I tried to bring it back to my forehand, I figured the goalie would be sliding, and it worked out.”
Peterka extended the lead to 3-1 on a breakaway at 5:15 following an offensive zone giveaway by Draisaitl.
“In the second period, we made a couple of mistakes that ended up in the back of our net and we weren’t able to outscore those mistakes,” Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft said. “But certainly through period 1 and period 3, we liked what we saw.”
Video: BUF@EDM: Peterka cashes in on breakaway
Nugent-Hopkins brought Edmonton to within 3-2 off a pass from McDavid at 18:27 of the third period.
Tuch shot into an empty net at 19:55 for the 4-2 final.
“They threw lots of pucks into Comrie’s pads and he stood very tall,” Sabers coach Don Granato said. “We did a great job of clearing guys out from that point and not allowing them to get real good wood on their shots. Comrie was very calm; he was more of a blocker the way they were throwing pucks to the net. It wasn’t t the glove saves or the blocker saves or the post-to-post saves, they were throwing pucks in from bad angles and crashing the net. He had to hold his ground while our defensemen would clear it out or limit the second chances, and he held his ground.”
NOTES: Oilers rookie forward Dylan Holloway left the game at 2:20 of the second after taking an open-ice hit from Ilya Lyubushkin at center ice. There was no update. … Lyubushkin left later in the period for an undisclosed reason, not related to the hit, according to Granato, and played one shift in the third … Comrie made 42 saves in a 4-2 loss at the Carolina Hurricanes on April 21 when He was with the Winnipeg Jets. … Buffalo was 0-for-8 on the power play before Dahlin’s goal. … Peterka is the fourth player in Sabers history to begin his rookie season with at least one point in each of his first three games (Tyler Ennis, 2010; Calle Johansson, 1987; Victor Olofsson, 2019). … Buffalo forward Vinnie Hinostroza had an assist in his season debut.
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