Sabres, Canucks fighting to stay with playoff contenders

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- With Jack Eichel and Evander Kane leading the way, the Buffalo Sabres are finding their offense, but they still have a lot of work to do in order to make a late-season push for the playoffs.

By STATS

Feb 12, 2017 at 12:26 am ET • 2 min read

Link copied!

Coming off a 3-1 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night, the Sabres will look to keep the momentum going Sunday when they return home to take on the Vancouver Canucks (24-25-6).

Buffalo (23-22-10) has won three of its last five games and its offense has been impressive in each of those victories.

The first was a 4-0 win over the Ottawa Senators on Feb. 4. The second, a 5-4 overtime win over the San Jose Sharks that featured a dramatic three-goal comeback midway through the third period before Kane's overtime winner.

And on Saturday, Kane had two goals and Eichel contributed three assists to lead the Sabres to a road victory over their border rivals.

Kane is heating up at the right time with four goals in his last three games. Eichel has eight points (one goal, seven assists) in his last five games.

"Kane brings a lot of speed, gets on the forecheck, causes a lot of havoc, gives us a lot of room and goes to the net," Eichel said after the win over the Maple Leafs. "We're just trying to use each other, get pucks on net and we were rewarded. ... We needed this one and we got it."

For all of the Sabres' positives in recent weeks, they still have plenty of ground to make up when it comes to the playoff race. Heading into Sunday, the Sabres were five points out of the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference but two points out of last place in the conference.

The Canucks, meanwhile, are in a similar position to the Sabres at this point in the season. They sit six points out of the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference and aren't doing themselves any favors with their recent stretch of play.

After a good start to the new year, the Canucks have fallen on hard times as of late and have lost five of their last six games, including a 4-3 loss to Boston on Saturday. The only win in that stretch was a 3-0 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday.

"It's frustrating for sure," Henrik Sedin said after the loss to Boston. "We're in a battle for a playoff spot and to have a chance to get two (points) would have been big for us. ... (Sunday) is a big game for us. Every game now, we know this road trip is huge and we need to put up some points. The teams around us are winning right now and that's tough to watch."

Sedin (11 goals, 23 assists) is second on the team points behind only Bo Horvat (16 goals, 20 assists). Goalie Ryan Miller will return to Buffalo but might not start against his former team after playing Saturday.