Buffalo continued their five-game home stretch as the Sabres welcomed the Dallas Stars to KeyBank Center on Thursday night.
The first shot of the game turned into a golden opportunity for Buffalo: Tage Thompson dished a beautiful behind-the-back pass to Peyton Krebs, but Jake Oettinger showed early why he is one of the best goalies in the league, knocking it down with his glove for the Stars.
A few minutes later, Buffalo couldn't capitalize on an offensive zone turnover, as the puck found Zach Benson with plenty of time and space in front of the net, but Oettinger bailed out his defense with a big save.
A little less than 10 minutes into the first period, it would be Dallas who would strike first; Mikko Rantanen, with a pass to Jason Robertson, beat Buffalo goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen on a 2-on-1. Wyatt Johnston was also credited with an assist on the goal.
Dallas outshot Buffalo 8-5 after 60 minutes.
In the second period, 11 seconds in, Luukkonen shut down Stars first-line center Roope Hintz on a breakaway.
Nearly halfway through the period, the boo birds reigned in KeyBank Center when Stars forward Sam Steel put a light shot on net that somehow found its way past a screened Luukkonen, a goal the Buffalo goaltender will definitely want back.
Dallas added to their scoring with 6:03 to go in the second period; Mikko Rantanen tapped the puck into a wide-open net after a shot went off the back boards and bounced out in front.
The momentum continued for Dallas, with 4:26 left in the second period, on the powerplay, Hintz sniped one top shelf from the key for Dallas. Rantanen registered his fourth point of the game on the goal; Johnston also tallied his third assist.
The Stars led 4-0 after two periods, outshooting Buffalo 15-14.
In the third period, Buffalo mustered up a couple of chances to score but ultimately was unable to get anything past Oettinger, who now has back-to-back shutouts on the season, leading the NHL with two shutouts in three games.
Dallas would go on to win 4- 0 as Buffalo drops to 2-2 on the season. The Sabres are seeing a mirror of special teams woes from last season; Buffalo was 0 for 3 on the powerplay in the loss on Thursday night and now are 0 for 13 on the season.
After the loss, Sabres head coach emphasized that the team needs to start games better.
"If you look at the two real good chances in the first five minutes, we got to start putting some of those away." Ruff said, "Our starts have to be better. We have to start putting the puck in the back of the net early. We all got to be better. Everybody."
On top of the faster starts on offense, goaltending needs to improve. Despite the lackluster performance in net on Thursday, Ruff expressed confidence in his goalie, Luukkonen.
"I'll give him a lot of credit. You know he's had some ups and downs, but he's battled. He's the type of guy who'll own it when he doesn't like when he plays, and he'll battle to get better," said Ruff.
UPL showed accountability for his performance.
"That's not good enough for me tonight, and I just want to focus on that. Even though we didn't score tonight, I think going through the third down four nothing, it's a hard place to be in. So just kind of have to be able to stop the bleeding at that point."
UPL added, "You don't want to start the season like this. It's not like they're all bad goals or anything, but you know, I think there's something to clean up on every game."
Buffalo has been down multiple goals in all four games this season, Sabres defenseman Mattias Samuelsson says the team isn't helping themselves so far early on this year.
"Falling behind is never easy in this league, especially against older teams like that that know how to win," Mattias added, "Kind of been shooting ourselves in the foot with that."
Next up for the Sabres is the fourth game on their five-game home stretch when they welcome the 3-2 Utah Mammoth to town on Saturday at 7 pm.
