Noah Ostlund’s quick double turns a tight night into a 5-1 Sabres win over Columbus

The 130 seconds that changed everything

A scoreless first period kept the game open, but Buffalo’s second-period sequence removed most of the uncertainty. Josh Norris broke through at 10:12 with a slap shot, with Owen Power and Konsta Helenius on the play. At 11:54, Noah Ostlund doubled the lead on a backhand from Zach Benson and Power. Just 28 seconds later, Ostlund scored again, this time on a slap shot from Benson, and a tense game had become a 3-0 Sabres cushion in barely more than two minutes.

That stretch matters because it was not one isolated bounce followed by a lull. The same Buffalo names kept reappearing in the scoring trail, and that usually tells you who was steering the game. Power touched the first two goals. Benson helped create the last two of the burst. By night’s end, Buffalo also owned the broader totals that fit the scoreboard, outshooting Columbus 35-25 after spending the first period waiting for a finish to arrive.

Our take: this one turned on sequence more than spectacle. The Blue Jackets were still level past the midpoint of regulation, and then Buffalo stacked three clean scoring plays before Columbus could reset the night. In a sport built on short windows, that was the whole hinge.

Power underneath it, Ostlund on top of it

Ostlund will get the headline for the pair of second-period goals, and fairly so. He scored twice on two shots and supplied the sharpest finishing on the ice. But Power was the connective piece in Buffalo’s attack, finishing with three assists and a plus-4 rating. Tage Thompson added a goal and an assist, put seven shots toward goal, and kept the pressure on even after the game had tilted Buffalo’s way.

The Sabres kept building in the third. Conor Timmins made it 4-0 at 3:53 on a backhand set up by Thompson and Jack Quinn. Thompson then scored at 14:32 on a snap shot with help from Josh Doan and Power, giving Buffalo five different goal scorers or multi-point contributors to chase across the score sheet. That kind of spread matters. Columbus could not focus on one line of production when the damage was coming from several places at once.

There were quieter Buffalo edges too. The Sabres won 58.9 percent of the faceoffs, finished with eight takeaways to Columbus’s three, and committed fewer giveaways, 10 to 14. Those are not glamorous numbers, but they help explain why Buffalo spent so much of the night with the puck often enough to reach 35 shots. In goal, Buffalo also got steady work from both netminders listed in the game stats: Colten Ellis stopped 11 of 12 shots he faced, and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen turned aside all 13 shots he saw.

Columbus did avoid the shutout when Corson Ceulemans scored at 16:19 of the third, with Dmitri Voronkov and Boston Buckberger drawing the assists. Ceulemans was also one of the Blue Jackets’ more active shooters from the back end with four shots. But by then the Sabres had already built too much distance for one late strike to change the feel or the verdict.

What the numbers say each team should clean up

For Columbus, the clearest place to start is puck control leading into special teams and possession. The Blue Jackets had five power-play chances and came away empty. They lost the faceoff battle 41.1 percent to 58.9 percent, were charged with 14 giveaways, and finished with 25 shots while allowing 35. Those are linked problems, even without pretending they tell the entire tactical story. When a team is chasing draws, surrendering extra possessions and not converting on five power plays, it becomes much harder to keep a close game from breaking open.

Our take: the Blue Jackets’ 27 hits and 20 blocked shots show they were engaged physically, but those are recovery numbers as much as resistance numbers when the other club is taking 10 more shots and forcing more turnovers. Columbus also asked two goalies to cover 35 Buffalo shots. Cam Talbot stopped 23 of 26 and Evan Gardner 7 of 9, which is serviceable support in patches, but it is a difficult nightly formula if the skaters in front are not holding more of the puck.

Buffalo, meanwhile, earned the result but did not play a perfect card. The Sabres went 0-for-3 on the power play themselves and took 10 penalties for 23 minutes, giving Columbus five man-advantages that a sharper opponent might punish. That is the main warning hidden inside a comfortable score line. Buffalo had enough even-strength finishing and enough control in the faceoff circle to win this one decisively; keeping the penalty count down would make a performance like this sturdier.

Still, the larger read is favorable for the Sabres. A scoreless first period became a multi-layered win because Buffalo found repeat creators, won draws, generated more shots and kept Columbus from turning extra power-play time into real damage. The scoreboard said 5-1. The underlying details said Buffalo gave that margin plenty of help.

Scoring moments

1. 2nd · 10:12

   Josh Norris Goal (1) Slap Shot, assists: Owen Power (1), Konsta Helenius (1)

2. 2nd · 11:54

   Noah Ostlund Goal (1) Backhand, assists: Zach Benson (1), Owen Power (2)

3. 2nd · 12:22

   Noah Ostlund Goal (2) Slap Shot, assists: Zach Benson (2)

4. 3rd · 3:53

   Conor Timmins Goal (1) Backhand, assists: Tage Thompson (1), Jack Quinn (1)

5. 3rd · 14:32

   Tage Thompson Goal (1) Snap Shot, assists: Josh Doan (1), Owen Power (3)

6. 3rd · 16:19

   Corson Ceulemans Goal (1) Snap Shot, assists: Dmitri Voronkov (1), Boston Buckberger (1)