Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, sizzling Sabres shut out Golden Knights
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 27 saves en route to his first shutout of the season as the Buffalo Sabres blanked the Vegas Golden Knights 2-0 on Tuesday night in Las Vegas.
Josh Doan and Josh Norris scored the goals for Buffalo, which maintained a four-point lead over the Tampa Bay Lightning, a 6-2 winner at Seattle, atop the Atlantic Division. The Sabres also moved into a tie with the Carolina Hurricanes for first-place in the Eastern Conference with 90 points.
It was the eighth shutout of Luukkonen's career and the first since Jan. 9, 2025, at Ottawa. Buffalo also improved to 18-2-1 in its past 21 road games and earned its 10th win in 11 games overall since the Winter Olympics break.
Vegas goalie Adin Hill, making his fifth consecutive start and coming off his first shutout of the season on Saturday against the Chicago Blackhawks, stopped 23 of 24 shots.
The Golden Knights, who had a two-game winning streak snapped, fell into third place in the tightly-bunched Pacific Division, one point behind both the Anaheim Ducks and the Edmonton Oilers.
Buffalo took advantage of a puck-handling misplay by Hill to take a 1-0 lead late in the first period.
Hill, behind his net, was attempting to clear the puck to Rasmus Andersson in the left corner, but Doan broke in for a steal. Doan then backhanded a shot that ricocheted into the net off Hill's right pad as he was retreating to get back into the cage at 18:02 of the first period.
Hill made up for his miscue early in the third period. Doan stole the puck from Noah Hanifin in the left corner and quickly passed it to Norris cutting in front of the net, where Hill stopped his one-timer from point-blank range.
Vegas nearly tied it with 5:05 to go, but Mitch Marner's shot from the middle of the right circle caromed off the top of the crossbar.
The Golden Knights pulled Hill for an extra attacker with 1:30 remaining and nearly tied it on a one-timer by Jack Eichel from the bottom of the left circle. Norris then sealed the win with an empty-netter with 57.6 seconds left.