Ryan McLeod gathered one goal and two assists to help lift the host Buffalo Sabers to a 5-4 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday in the regular season finale for both teams.
The win was the 900th coaching career for Buffalo Bench manager Lindy Ruff, who became the fifth NHL coach who achieved that milestone.
Alex Tuch, Jack Quinn and JJ Peterka scored one goal and set another, Peyton Krebs also counted and James Reimer made 21 rescues for Sabers (36-39-7, 79 points).
Philadelphia beginner Matvei Michkov scored twice to increase his team-leading goal a total of 26 in the season. He also had an assist.
Tyson Foerster scored his ninth goal in his last nine matches and added an assist. Bobby Brink also had a goal and an assist and Aleksei Kolosov turned aside 26 shots for Flyers (33-39-10, 76 points).
Peterka converted a two-to-one-rush at 1:24 of the second period to stake Buffalo to a 4-1 lead before Philadelphia began to be spun away.
Michkov, who scored from the high place with 4:51 left in the first period, dropped home a loose puck from the door at 7:11 by the other.
Foerstrigated Noah Cates’ centering of feed past Reimer to trim Saber’s lead to 4-3 just 15 seconds into the third period. However, Reimer denied Flyer’s captain Sean Couturier from Point-Blank Range to preserve the narrow advantage of 11:38 during the period.
McLeod made an empty net with 48 seconds left in the third period. The goal turned out to be important when Brink spoke for the flyer with 19 seconds left.
Jason Zucker sprung a transverse centering feed that Tuch led home to open the score at 4:35 of the season. Tuch’s goal was his career high -binding 36th season, while Zucker’s assist was his career best 32nd of the campaign.
Krebs converted on an interruption to double the advantage at 13:49 in the first period. The goal was Kreb’s career high 10th season.
Quinn responded to Michkov’s first goal by burying a nicely centered feed from McLeod after an odd man-rushing just 62 seconds later to give Buffalo a 3-1 lead.
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