Eichel does it all in Sabres’ OT win
Buffalo Sabres newcomer Marcus Johansson has quickly gained an appreciation of how captain Jack Eichel can take over a game.
Johansson was wowed by Eichel’s two secondperiod goals, including one on an individual rush against three Montreal defenders. And then Eichel had a hand in setting up Johansson scoring 1:30 into overtime of a 54 win over the visiting Canadiens on Wednesday.
“He can be so dominant. He can take over the game,” Johansson said of Eichel. “What he can do with the puck with the size he’s got, it’s impressive to watch. It’s fun to watch up close.”
The twogoal, twoassist outing was the least Eichel said he could do in sweeping away the frustrations from an offnight in a 43 overtime loss at Columbus on Monday.
“The other night was frustrating for a lot of us, especially myself,” Eichel said. “So it was important for our group to come back and play well at home.”
Eichel particularly wowed the crowd by putting Buffalo (301) ahead 32 late in the second. Circling with the puck inside his zone, he eluded Tomas Tatar’s check at the Buffalo blue line and then built up a head of steam driving through the neutral zone. With Ben Chiarot and Jeff Petry backing up, Eichel fired a low hard shot that sneaked in under goalie Keith Kincaid. Flyers 4, Devils 0: Carter Hart stopped 25 shots for his first career shutout to lift host Philadelphia.
Ivan Provorov scored for the Flyers, and so did Kevin Hayes, Sean Couturier and Travis Konency as part of a threegoal third period.
Hart shined in the Philadelphia debut of new coach Alain Vigneault, securing the shutout in his 33rd NHL game. Briefly: Pittsburgh placed forward Alex Galchenyuk on injured reserve because of an undisclosed injury . ... Buffalo forward Conor Sheary is “weektoweek” with an upperbody injury, the team said.