03-19 Sabres-Sharks Postgame Show with Brian Koziol

Let's start the play.

Sabers will get numbers here.

Is the Sharft's defense thanks.

They score.

What a play as a Saber's take advantage.

And Noah Oslin is going to score the goal

to get the Saber's the lead in this game.

It won the nothing.

There's Noah Oslin.

He started the scoring 905 into the second.

Then Karik and Daliin all getting on it quickly there

as Buffalo scored three times in a minute 43.

Three nothing after two.

They add two more in the third from Thompson.

And another one from Karik.

It all adds up to a five to nothing victory.

That is our goal of the game.

The game winner of the Buffalo only in one.

They got five from Oslin.

It's brought to you by Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer

Center, early detection of cancer is our goal.

Get in the game at roswellpark.org slash WGR.

We welcome you here into the post game.

Brian Colziel with you.

We're going to get to Paul Hamilton at the SAP Center

in San Jose in just a few moments with player interviews

in the locker room.

We'll also hear from Lenny Ruff will get his final,

or excuse me, his post game comments here

as he meets with Paul and the rest of the media.

We'll get Paul Hamilton's final take.

We'll update you on the scores going around the NHL

and the standings, but I mean, how about another win

for the Sabers?

And only it's 16 shots tonight for Buffalo.

16 shots, they score five times on Delkovich

and Buffalo wins it tonight in another shutout.

Back-to-back shutouts for the first time

since January of 2024.

For Lion, it's his third shutout of the season,

his seventh of his career,

and the impressive numbers keep coming in.

Here's, we'll start with the record

since the Olympic break.

They're 11 and 1 since the Olympic break.

How about on the road?

11, 0 and 1 in their last 12 on the road.

They add to the longest streak in team history

in terms of getting points consecutively on the road.

That's now up to 12.

And credit Buffalo Saber stats for this one on Twitter

just putting this out.

Buffalo in their last 40 games, 32, six and two.

I'll say that again, it's that good.

32, six and two in their last 40.

The last time a team had this many wins

in a 40 game stretch of his season,

you got to go back to the 1995 Detroit Redwings

when they had 33 wins in that stretch.

Incredible.

Lion, Luke and in getting it done.

The team scoring here, even on not that many shots,

16 shots, and the road record keeps going.

The record since the Olympic break.

And yeah, they'll look to keep it going on Saturday

in Los Angeles against the Kings.

That is a 4 p.m.

puck drop.

Another lead going into the third that they hold on.

I mean, it just keeps piling up, piling up.

How about the trade for Sam Carrick?

Yarmul Kekalainen getting straight A's for that one so far.

He has come through big.

We talked about it during the second intermission.

He adds another goal here deflecting a Stanley shot.

Stanley had two points, by the way,

for his own doing tonight to assist.

And Buffalo gets it done in front of 17,435

at the SAP Center.

While we wait for locker interviews,

let's talk about the three stars

that brought to you by Blue Star Home Services.

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It started at bluestarHS.com.

No surprise, all Saber stars.

Lying with a shut out, star number three, Dalline.

He had a goal and an assist, star number two.

And Matthias Samielsen, who had an assist,

but had some real nice defensive plays and breakups,

even some on Celebrini.

Star number one.

So yes, Kudos to the star voters tonight.

I thought Samielsen did have a good game.

And represented Buffalo's defense here in this shut out victory,

as the Sabers get it done, five to nothing.

We will again head into the locker room in just one moment,

but Lion picks up the win, the Delkovich, the loss.

And the Delkovich can't be happy,

letting it five on 16 shots in this one.

But it didn't matter.

I mean, if we only let him one, his team didn't score.

And Buffalo's defense and goal-tending

continues to be impressive.

All right, Sam Carrick's up first.

Live in San Jose with Paul.

Well, Sam, it wasn't going real well for you guys for a while,

but the next thing you know,

you score on three shots in a row,

and you got a three-nothing lead.

What happened?

Yeah, I think we just started playing more our style of play.

We were a little too high-risk in the first period there.

Trying to get a little too cute with it.

Myself included.

And I think we turned it around as a team there

in a good job in a third.

I'm obviously, Lionel kept us in in the first hand,

throughout the game, which was huge.

How much those first three saves in the first three,

four minutes of the game just allowed you guys

to stay zero, zero, and get your feet a little.

Yeah, it's huge.

Obviously, this team's got a lot of offensive threats.

And if you give them that many looks,

they're going to make it pay.

So obviously not how we drew it up to start,

but like I said, Lionel kept us in it.

And once we started playing the right way,

we did a much better job.

Take me through your first goal, how that came about.

It seemed like you would set the defense

up to screen the goal-tender, but what happened before that?

Well, as part of our game plan is trying to play quick

and get the puck in the neutral zone.

And we did that, and Benny made a great play

in the neutral zone to hit our D-man that was flying up.

It's one part of our identity here.

Our D-man are always joining the rush.

And it was just part of it.

Obviously made a nice play to drop it to me.

And I just closed my eyes and fired it in the net.

You came here to be responsible, to be a leader,

to win face-offs.

What's it like to be contributing at this level

offensively so quickly?

Yeah, it's great.

I think we do a good job here of rolling our lines,

trusting everyone in all situations.

And it's been great to be on the fourth line

that we're getting put in different situations.

Yeah, I think it's just easier to find a groove

when we're rolling lines like that.

It's just been fun.

After your second goal, until you guys were debating

who actually got it, were you wondering that at the time?

We still don't know.

I mean, it's hard to tell, you know,

things are happening quick in there.

You're getting pushed and the puck's coming by you.

So we'll have to look at a slow-mo replay there

and see who actually scored.

I'm hoping Stan was.

It was yours.

It went off your skate.

OK.

It went off one of their sticks.

You're a skate player.

Yeah, well, I was hoping for Stan to do a to get that.

But, you know, yeah, this is just one of those plays

that good things happens when you throw things at the net.

Thanks, Sam.

Sam Carrick on the post game.

Brian, back to you.

Sam Carrick, two goals tonight, his seventh and eighth

of the season, two of the five Buffalo goals.

Back to the room.

Here's the captain, Erasmus Stalling with Paul.

Rasmus, when you guys got going, you guys got going.

It wasn't going well to start with, but you were still 0-0.

You were able to hold it to 0-0.

What happened to turn it all around?

I think when we got one or two goals,

so we started to relax a bit.

Handle the puck first period.

We kind of just whacked it around.

Didn't really play our game.

So it was a solid game.

How about you, Ergo?

You came with a lot of speed.

I mean, you were flying up the ice,

and then Zooker made a nice pass to you.

Were you thinking that, as long as it's him,

it's going to come your way?

No, I saw Sam going up strong, so they didn't know

what was coming there.

So Zooker made a great play on the back end,

and it was just for me to put it in the back door.

Obviously, the Russia offense is their game.

That's what they live off.

But how cool is it to come into their building

and throw something like we can do that, too?

Yeah, we came in with the mentality.

We knew they're in a playoff race.

So they came out hard.

So we had to match our energy.

It was a solid game.

You've talked in two games here from two different goalies

on this road trip.

How incredible a job these guys continue

to do night after night.

Without that guy, the game would have looked very different.

But we have two unbelievable goalies.

He's not, he can't be worse than an upit.

It seems like CLs had to shut it, shut it out.

But no, unbelievable.

They are a huge part of our success.

It seems like you guys do have the temperament of you.

No, even if you're playing poorly,

that you guys can get it back.

It sounds like you know you can turn it around

because you've done it before.

Yeah, we have confidence in our group.

We didn't play our best today, but we found a way to win.

And that's big credit to this group.

George Babcock, he gets 2,500 games.

I know you guys were celebrating.

He's been here your whole time.

And a lot more other players than you.

Yeah, that guy breathes and bleeds buffalo.

I'm so happy that he's right here right now having success.

Again, he's been through it.

So an unbelievable human being.

And we've had a lot of memories.

And I'm so, so happy for him.

He means a lot to me.

Thank you, Rasmus Thaline.

And for people who don't know, he is the equipment manager

for the Buffalo Sabers, the Assistant Equipment Manager.

And we have now the other gold tender

who also got a shut out to attack onto Uco Peca-Lukin

and shut out.

How does that feel, Alex Lyon?

Yeah, good credit to the guys.

That we played a mature game today.

Kind of found our way through the first period a little bit.

And then just started, you know, had obviously

a pretty explosive, I don't even know what was it,

two minutes stretch, or something like that.

So yeah, it was good, it was awesome.

Satisfied that we got the win.

And we just have to move forward

and two difficult games when it backs back.

That's a case of quick saves early in the game,

get you right in the game, and helps the team at the same time.

Yeah, definitely.

They, you know, we knew that they were going

to be desperate tonight.

So we could, you know, their season

is on the line every night now seemingly.

And ours is too.

I mean, we're trying to play with desperation.

But obviously, when you're in that situation,

there's a little bit different level of emotion there.

So yeah, just a good game and happy and ready to get to LA.

I'm at play where you made the same next thing

you know, the puck's bouncing around

right near the goal line.

Were you sure it didn't go in or weren't you sure yet?

You were spinning around.

I didn't know if you even saw it bouncing around there.

Yeah, I was sure it didn't go in.

But I mean, I was in a pretty vulnerable position.

And you know, you get a feeling when things are

you're vulnerable and when they're going to have a good scoring

opportunity, and I kind of felt it go over my head there.

But you know, if you just keep battling in the moment,

you never know which one of those is going to stay out.

And so, you know, as you guys know,

that's kind of my mentality is I just

stay in the moment and continue to fight.

And every once in a while, you come up lucky,

kind of lucky things happen.

It's kind of a lucky play for me.

But we came back hard and crashed hard,

and that always helps too.

So a good desperation by everybody.

You won 10 in a row on the road.

One shy of the NHL record.

I didn't know that.

What's the level of satisfaction

to just shutting up opposing buildings so often this year?

Yeah, it's fun.

I mean, I love playing on the road.

And I think it's fun with this group.

We have a young group who kind of just, you know,

we fight by the seat of our pants a little bit, which

I think helps us with our mentality.

But I always liked going on the road.

You know, you want to establish that comfort at home.

But it's important to establish that comfort on the road

as well.

And I think as you get older, you get better on the road.

Just take care of your body, doing the right things,

kind of like leading up to the game.

It's a completely different process than preparing

for a home game.

So you get better at that with time.

And yeah, it's cool.

And just going to try to send it next game.

And hopefully it works out.

I asked Rasmus the same question.

You're new to George Papcock this year.

Have you ever met anybody like him?

No, you guys know George.

He's one of a kind, but he's one of the most genuine people,

authentic people.

He's so authentic to himself.

And he provides an incredible amount of energy.

And obviously our season's been kind of a tale of two

halves here.

But he's the same guy from day one as he is right now.

And I respect him so much.

And we have so much appreciation for those guys.

They work their tails off.

So just really happy for him and hoping for $2,500 more.

Thanks, Alex.

Alex Lyon in the post game.

Brian, back to you.

All right, Paul.

Thank you very much.

There's the Sabre Goldtender, who has now

been a part of Back to Back shutouts.

For the first time since January of 2024,

look at in the last game in Vegas,

two to nothing, Lyon tonight in San Jose,

five to nothing, the final.

Kings will be next on Saturday in Los Angeles

and then ducks on Sunday at eight.

Obviously we'll have both those games right here.

The Sabres radio network.

Lindy Ruff is coming up here in just a moment.

So stay right here.

Paul will get a chance to talk to the Sabres head coach.

And then we'll get Paul Hamilton's final thoughts

on this shutout victory.

While we wait for the coach, let's get some final stats

in.

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Shots in the third were 86 Sabres.

It ends up 2316 San Jose.

So Buffalo scoring five times on 16 shots.

Both teams were 0 for 2 on the power play.

Lyon gets the win, 23 saves.

Alex Nadelkovich, the loss, 11 saves on 16 shots.

Again, your three stars.

Lyon 3, Dalline 2, Sam Wilson 1.

Now we're going to get to the injury report.

Brought to by your hammer, hammer go over to Hadori.

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to get your door healthy again.

The injury report tonight has been focusing on Alex Tuck

returning after missing last game.

It was officially illness, not injury,

but we're treating it that he was still out.

And Tuck tonight gets an assist plus one played 1736

on 21 shifts.

One shot attempt did have two block shots

and one hit along the way.

So there is Alex Tuck's stat line for the Sabres leading

in terms of shots.

Sam Karek, he had three.

Again, the whole team total was lower than normal at 16.

How about this?

Every single saber was a plus tonight.

Here's Lenny Ruff, live with Paul in San Jose.

Well, Lenny, how did you guys pull that one off?

It wasn't going well at all.

Next thing, you know you had a three-nothing lead

on three shots.

Yeah, you know what, I thought their compete early on

was it was at a higher level than ours.

We turned some pucks over in the neutral zone,

had some lateral passes again.

You know, our goal tender gave us some great saves.

And then I thought, you know, we passed up a couple

of great opportunities.

But then once we got rolling offensively,

I thought we had a couple of real next plays.

Early on, there were a couple of players

who were celebrating.

They looked like he had a break and same lesson.

You just closed the gap.

How impressed you with the heat when those plays.

Yeah, I thought, overall, you know, we knew

that it was going to have to be aware of.

And I thought, as a group and Sam, especially when he was

out there, they did a good job making sure he didn't get free.

He caught us a couple of times in Buffalo.

We tried to make sure we were aware when he was on the ice.

And you talked early.

I mean, Lion made three saves in the early going.

You could have been in a hole.

And that's the kind of thing you've gotten from him

basically all year, isn't it?

Yeah, you know, I mean, real important saves.

I mean, obviously, to get through that first period

and not give up any with some of the opportunities he gave,

and it was got to give our goal tender a lot of credit.

Tage finally got on the board with the fourth goal.

But it had to be nice to get three goals when really

your top scores weren't even involved

to get them a lot of other places, both the goals and the assists.

Yeah, you know, the depth of our scoring

has been something that's been, you know,

help us in helping us stay on this role.

You know, I think there are nights where top guys

don't get on the board.

And that secondary scoring really helps you out.

And I think you look at again tonight,

the our fourth line got a couple of fours.

And then finally, Tage came through in the two and one

with Krebs, but the Osland line with the Norris,

they got us started.

And, you know, at different times,

I think it's been important that all those guys produce.

Oh, impressive, is it?

You brought Carrick in, leadership, experience, face-offs,

and you're getting a lot of offense from the guy too.

Yeah.

Again, I'll say we've got a hand in Buffalo citizenship soon

because it's just the way he's playing.

Are there any times you can remember getting four goals

on four straight shots like that?

You're not needing to really think about it.

Three and three in a second period.

Yeah.

Probably not.

I don't recall.

I mean, I could be some type of record, I don't know,

but I didn't even give it much thought.

Thanks, Wendy.

Wendy, we'll find the post game, Brian, back to you.

All right, a very joyful as he should be.

Head coach, Wendy Ruff, all of our locker reports tonight

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We'll read some tweets a little bit later in post game.

As we'll get connected with our fans,

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All right, let's go back to the SAP Center in San Jose,

and we'll get Paul Hamilton's final thoughts on this one.

Well, Paul, you and I talked during the second intermission,

a three-nothing lead with the way Buffalo's been playing

their third periods lately that it felt like a formality.

And then 40 seconds later, Tage Thompson made a four-nothing.

And while I was like, well, OK, we're certain now here.

And there's essentially a whole period to play.

They handled the third period well,

and even added to their total.

Yeah, I had a night tonight, didn't I?

I think it was maybe 30 seconds before the savers

started that three-gold binge.

I think I tweeted out, they're starting to let this get away.

And I was about 30 seconds later.

They started scoring goals.

And then I've mentioned to you a couple times how Tage is,

because it doesn't happen very often.

I hadn't scored in four games after going on like a 36-game

binge where he had closed to 50 points

is something on that line.

And then hadn't had a goal of five games,

hadn't had a point four games.

And then he goes ahead, and next thing you know,

took him 40 seconds to score.

So yeah, I had quite a night on Twitter tonight.

Three players I want to talk to you about.

Lion, Karek, and Sam Wilson.

Let's start with Lion.

Back-to-back shutouts for the savers, goal tenders.

It goes from Luke and in back to Lion,

his third of the season.

He obviously, early Paul, then he rough-set it

that without his saves early on,

maybe we're having a different discussion.

They allowed them to maybe get through that first period

when the sharks were the better team.

Yeah, and that's the point I was making earlier where,

and I understand the point, I respect the point,

where the guy said, well, you know,

Luke and him really earned the next start.

And my response is, okay, I get that.

But Lion was 16 and two coming in

and is one away from the NHL record

consecutive road wins.

Well, I mean, you know, so they really are both

earning their starts.

I mean, you really can't say,

and the way this is going back and forth

between the two of them, it's been going extremely well.

And they both are putting up extremely good numbers

and playing very, very well.

So I mean, they deserve it

and they deserve to play every other game

and they know they're gonna play every other game.

And, you know, Uko Pekalukin didn't have to back up tonight

so he spent his night getting ready

to play the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday.

Yeah, that'll be cool.

And Alex Lion will get ready to play

the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday.

Yeah, it all works out.

Okay, I want to ask you about Sam Carich Paul,

U.S. Lindy about his offensive contributions,

kind of adding to his resume as we've seen him here,

still kind of fresh in a saber uniform

since coming over in the trade.

Yeah, and he'll be known more for his defense

and Lindy Ruff is not afraid to put him on the ice

against any line or put Malinstein on the ice

against any line.

Malinstein was that way in Washington too.

He played against some of the better lines

in a similar role and he's been doing that here also

and doing a good job.

And the coach isn't gonna trust those guys

if they're not good at it.

So, you know, they have been good at it.

They've deserved to be out there.

And they've changed games.

I mean, they will change the complexion of games.

And, you know, you get a good nice goal

and you get one that bounces off a stick of San Jose,

a skate of Carichs and winds up in the net.

I mean, but, I always say, you make your own breaks.

Why does it go off Carich's skate?

Because he's in front of the net.

He's not in the perimeter.

You know, he's out in front of the net

and that's what happens.

All of a sudden bouncing pucks come flying through.

You get chaos, hit your skate and goes in.

That's how you get dirty goals.

Yeah.

And the third player I wanted to ask you about

was Mattia Samelson and Kudos

for whoever voted for the three stars and I called.

Samelson got the top star.

I know you and I many nights don't love the stars.

And I might not have even thought to give him the first,

but now that I think about it, I like that he was the first star.

Maybe just talk a little bit about his early contributions

defensively and what Lindy Ruff said

about his defensive celebrating.

Well, whoever picked the stars probably noticed

what he did against Celebrini.

I mean, that one play, Celebrini looked like he was around him

and he got the stick out and made a great play

just to knock the puck away from him and to kill the play

when it looked like he might have been beaten.

But he has that reach and just made a really, really good play

and he did it all night.

And I think I had him in my notes for three or four times

where he made really good plays on Celebrini.

And Guy in front of me right now, no oscillant also.

I think New Celebrini was on defense for his goal

and took advantage of that when he tapped it into the net.

Yep.

All right, Paul, let's just finish with a couple of streaks here.

11-0 and 1 in their last 12 road games.

That's a franchise record for points

consecutively in road games.

11 and 1 since the Olympic break.

And 32, 6 and 2 in their last 40.

The last time a team has won this many games

at a 40 game stretch was Detroit who won 33 and 40 in 1995.

Pretty impressive.

Yeah, as I said, we should never be surprised by what we see.

I mean, it's crazy what we see here.

And it just, I, I, I, you know, Lindy Ruffs

wondering if he's ever seen it.

I don't know if I've ever seen it.

You know, you have three shots on goal in the period.

You scored and all three of them.

Then your fourth shot was the first shot

of the third period scored on that one too.

I mean, it's like, that's crazy.

So it's just insane how different they go about doing

their business.

And it just wasn't going well, but you looked up at the clock

and looked up at the scoreboard.

It was still 0-0.

And that's the important thing.

You played well enough that, you know, you look up.

It's still 0-0.

And next thing, you know, you're up three nothing

because you finally put it into gear.

Paul, thanks for all your work tonight.

Appreciate it.

Have a safe trip to Los Angeles.

Okay. Sounds good.

Okay, great.

Paul Hamilton with us here.

Sabers and Kings coming up next Saturday at four

and then Sabers and Ducks Sunday at eight.

All right, we're just about to 1 a.m.

If you stayed up late with us here in the Buffalo area

or wherever you're listening, thank you.

We have just a little more post game to come,

but at this time, we're going to say goodbye

to all of our local affiliate stations.

If you want to keep listening to the post game,

go to WGR550.com or the Odyssey app.

And if you're on our flagship here in Buffalo on WGR,

more post game to come.

We'll get our save of the game.

We'll read you some tweets, send them in at Brian WGR

and our driver on the league will update you on the standings.

Final score from San Jose.

Sabers five, shark's nothing.

I'm Brian Colziel.

This is the Buffalo Sabers radio network.

There wasn't much happening there,

but they got the little shot away

through the crowd, Melvin Stein.

He freight trains for a row in front of the Sabers bench.

Big hit from Beck, Melvin Stein.

Always laying the lumber or collision of the game.

Brought to you by Dan Chacha.

Injury attorneys, don't worry.

Chacha's gotcha.

Five nothing.

Sabers shut out the sharks.

Big reason.

Well, the man in net, Alex Lyon, his third shut out

of the season, 23 shots, 23 saves,

including this one, our save of the game.

Let's score on the board.

15.05 to go here in the first.

Sharks coming back again with graph trying to set a big save

and sure what had to look here on Alex Lyon.

Alex Lyon, our save of the game.

Brought to you by your upstate Honda dealers

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Five nothing.

The final, let's read some tweets here.

As we get connected with our fans powered by Verizon,

get to your local Verizon store today.

Send them in after each and every game at BrianWGR.

Mark says, man, oh man, what can I say?

Sabers are clicking, good to have talk back in the lineup.

Love the hit that he had on the San Jose D-Man.

Can you imagine what the scoreboard would be

if we had 30 shots, great job.

Yeah, three goals on three shots in the second period.

And then the first shot of the third was Thompson.

So four in four, pretty amazing.

Joel says, Metza and Stanley are looking

like a legitimate shutdown pair.

64 referring to Stanley, getting comfortable in roughs system.

Yeah, so far.

Jeff says, the Sabers were a great distraction

during the St. Louis Billikens blowout.

Maybe he was at the arena watching that basketball game.

Sam Karek, what a great addition.

Yeah, I would agree, Jeff.

Yarmou hit a home run on that trade so far, for sure.

Mike says, Brian, how really cool

is it that Karek wanted Stanley to get that goal?

I would agree.

Unselfish team player, he's fit right in,

right from the start, no doubt about it.

Ron referring to Karek for a third

and a sixth round picked this year.

What a steal, absolutely.

Chris says, this is a new feeling.

O506 was not like this.

This is something else.

We are a truly scary team.

Lindy knows this might be his real last shot.

That's what makes this team scary, for sure.

Jim says over 164 minutes without giving up a goal.

That's true, back to back shutouts

for the first time since January of 2024.

Thanks for all the tweets, send them in.

After each and every game on X at Brian WGR.

All right, let's see how the standings look

after we get to the scoreboard here.

Our driver on the league brought to you

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Well, we were keeping an eye on the game in Vancouver.

Would there be a miracle that the conucks could help out

the Sabers?

No, Tampa rolls Vancouver by a score of 62.

So no help there.

I guess you could argue some help.

Montreal loses in regulation in Detroit.

3-1 there to the Red Wings.

Boston 6-1 winners over Winnipeg.

Buffalo will be in Los Angeles Saturday.

The Kings and the Flyers are tied up 3-3 late

with five minutes to go in that game.

Columbus improving their playoffs positioning here.

They came outside the outside looking in.

We'll look at the standings in a moment,

but they beat the Rangers 6-3.

Ottawa over the islanders, 3-2.

Other finals, Florida shuts out Edmonton 4-0.

Nashville 3-1 winners over Seattle.

And Utah shuts out Vegas by a 4-0 margin.

Okay, what does it mean to the standings?

All these games here tonight.

Let's talk about that here right now.

With Buffalo's win, they now have 92 points

through 69 games tied with Carolina,

who also has 92 points for tops in the Eastern Conference.

Carolina though has played one less game.

So points percentage wise, they are ahead.

Once they get even up in games, even if they're tied,

and Buffalo would have the tiebreaker

due to regulation wins.

They're actually five regulation wins ahead of Carolina.

Tampa won again, so they have 88.

Montreal lost in regulation, they have 84.

So there's the Atlantic.

Buffalo 92, Tampa 88, Montreal 84.

Then you've got the Bruins also with 84,

their Wild Card 1, and then you've got Detroit also

with 84, their Wild Card 2.

As I mentioned, Columbus moved into third in the Metro

that bumped the islanders down to out as of this moment.

Columbus has 83 points through 68 games,

and the islanders have 83 points through 69 games.

So right now the New York Islanders have been bumped out.

But how about this Pittsburgh, they've got to be careful.

They have 84, sitting in second,

but Columbus and New York are only one point behind them.

So the penguins could be careful.

They could fall out of a playoff spot here very soon.

You've got Pittsburgh 84, Boston 84, Detroit 84,

Columbus 83, and the islanders 83, all in a log jam.

And one of those teams will not make it as of today.

And you could still maybe keep Ottawa in the mix.

They have 79.

So interesting finish we're going to get

in the Wild Card race as for the Sabers that they have 92.

They are saying we are not messing with that group.

I'm going to stay in front of the Atlantic

and maybe try and run down Carolina.

So good news in the standings again for Buffalo.

They pick up their 43rd win of the season and 36th in regulation.

Only Colorado has more.

They have 39 regulation wins here so far.

So it'll be game 70 Saturday, four o'clock puck drop in LA,

three o'clock pregame right here on WGR.

As we put a wrap on things tonight.

I want to thank you for staying up late with us

as it is 106 in the morning.

And we want to thank our crew.

Dan Dale, our network producer.

Thank you, Dan.

Kyle Powell on our social media.

Check out his game story, wgr550.com.

Tom Maddie, our great engineer.

He's a grandfather tonight.

Congratulations, Tom, to you and your family.

We got word of that today.

So kudos to the Maddie family and enjoy the time

with the new addition to the family.

Paul Hamilton, our reporter and our game announcers.

Dan Dudley be in Rob Ray.

I'm Brian Colziel.

Thank you for listening.

Finally again from San Jose, Buffalo 5.

And then these sharks, nothing.

Let's talk to you Saturday, Sabers and Kings.

Right here on the Buffalo Sabers Radio Network.

Good night, everyone.