The Buffalo Sabres and visiting Los Angeles Kings each bring winning streaks into their Thursday night contest.
The Sabres have won four straight, with the most recent a 7-4 road win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday night in which captain Rasmus Dahlin recorded his first career hat trick and added two assists for a five-point performance.
He also surpassed 400 career points.
“I just love doing it with the boys here,” Dahlin said. “It’s such a fun thing to go to war with these guys. I think we’re doing such a good job to win tight games now. So, we just got to keep going.”
Dahlin has 42 points (11 goals, 31 assists) in 48 games this season.
“(Dahlin) is finding his game right now. He feels good about his game,” Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff said. “I think right now, he’s skating as well as he’s skated the whole year.”
That could also be said about the Sabres as a whole.
They are 19-3-1 since Dec. 9 — the winningest 23-game stretch in franchise history — and currently positioned to make the playoffs for the first time since the 2010-11 season.
“I think we just have a confident group right now,” said defenseman Mattias Samuelsson, who had three assists vs. Toronto. “They score first or we get down a goal or two in a game, I don’t think there’s any panic or anything. We just keep going to work. I think we have a pretty talented group that can score goals, so just stick with the game plan. Keep hunting pucks, keep getting after the other team and good things will come. I don’t think there’s really much panic in this room.”
Tage Thompson, who played his 500th game, had a goal and an assist.
Goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen left with a lower-body injury in the middle of the first period after allowing two goals. Colten Ellis came on to make 16 saves.
There has been no update on Luukkonen, although he did not practice on Wednesday.
Jordan Greenway did not play on Tuesday because of issues relating to the sports hernia surgery he underwent last July.
The Kings hung on for a 3-1 win over the Red Wings in Detroit on Tuesday for their third win in a row. They also have points in their last six (3-0-3), moving even on points with the San Jose Sharks for the final Western Conference wild-card spot entering Wednesday’s action.
Anton Forsberg made 27 saves but his shutout bid was foiled with 2:15 left when Alex DeBrincat scored with the Red Wings’ goalie pulled for the extra attacker.
Corey Perry’s empty-net goal with 1:13 remaining clinched the win.
“I didn’t like the last six minutes, because we were on our heels again, but prior to that, I really liked our game,” Los Angeles coach Jim Hiller said. “In the first five minutes of the first period, you could see that we had our legs going on all four lines.”
Andrei Kuzmenko and Samuel Helenius also scored.
The Kings only allowed 10 shots over the first two periods, seven at 5-on-5.
Warren Foegele returned after being a healthy scratch in a road shootout win over the St, Louis Blues on Saturday. He led Los Angeles with four shots on goal in 15:44 of ice time.
