Michael Houser stopped 34 shots in his NHL debut, Sam Reinhart scored twice in Buffalo’s three-goal third period and the Buffalo Sabers beat the playoff-bound New York Islanders 4-2 on Monday night.
Tage Thompson and Rasmus Asplund likewise scored for Buffalo, which trailed 2-0 right off the bat in the second period.
“It’s super exciting. I’m not really in that great of game shape, either, I’ll admit that,” the 28-year-old Houser said. “After the game celebrating and everything, I could barely breathe, so I’m just trying to catch my breath right now, give my parents a shout after this and see what their take is on it.”
Houser spent the past 8½ seasons in the minor leagues. It was his first game since March 7, 2020, with Cincinnati of the ECHL.
“A very special night, special person,” Sabres coach Don Granato said. “So, great to be a part of it. And the locker room was even better. The rallying in the locker room was very, very enjoyable for all. What a moment.”
Adam Pelech and Oliver Wahlstrom scored for the Islanders. Semyon Varlamov, falling off three straight shutouts, finished with 36 saves.
The Islanders fell to fourth place in the Eastern Division – one point behind Boston, which beat New Jersey 3-0. The Bruins additionally have a game in hand on the Islanders.
“I thought we played with a little bit of arrogance,” Islanders coach Barry Trotz said. “You know, let’s get in the inside, play our game and we were just saying, ‘Oh, it’s going to be easy, we’ve got a lead,’ and then we just made it easy for them.”
The teams finish their season arrangement Tuesday night in Buffalo.
Thompson’s power-play goal got the Sabers on the scoreboard with 5:56 left in the subsequent period and finished Varlamov’s shutout streak at 248 minutes.
Asplund tied the score with 8:35 excess in the third.
Reinhart gave the Sabres a 3-2 lead with 4:04 left and fixed the success with a void netter, his vocation high-tying 25th objective, with 52 seconds to go.
“A hundred percent (disappointing),” Islanders defenseman Adam Pelech said. “Even though we clinched a playoff spot and had an emotional weekend (against the New York Rangers), that’s not an excuse. … We need to be better tomorrow night and going forward for the rest of the season here heading into the playoffs.”
Sabers ADD A GOALIE
Bison signed goalie Stefanos Lekkas to an professional tryout deal on Monday. Lekkas was the backup for the Sabers’ AHL group in Rochester and is 1-4-1 with a .863 save rate with a 4.32 objectives against normal. He backed up Houser on Monday night because of injuries to goalies Dustin Tokarski, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, Carter Hutton and Linus Ullmark.