Blue Jackets snap Sabres’ 10-game win streak in 5-1 rout
The Columbus Blue Jackets scored three times in the first period, including once short-handed, and beat Buffalo 5-1 on Saturday, snapping the Sabres’ league-leading 10-game win streak
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The Columbus Blue Jackets scored three times in the first period, including once short-handed, and beat Buffalo 5-1 on Saturday, snapping the Sabres’ league-leading 10-game win streak.
Denton Mateychuk, Brendan Gaunce and Dmitri Voronkov scored in the first, while Mathieu Olivier added a second-period goal, and Cole Sillinger contributed a third-period empty-netter. Damon Severson and Zach Werenski each had two assists, Mateychuk also added a helper, and Jet Greaves stopped 32 shots.
The Blue Jackets have won four of the last five games in the series.
Josh Doan scored, and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen stopped 30 shots for Buffalo, which lost for the first time since Dec. 8. It was the third time in the team’s 56-year history that it had a win streak snapped at 10 games.
Mateychuk extended his point streak to six games and put Columbus ahead at 3 minutes, burying the second Blue Jackets shot of the game from outside the right circle. Werenski returned after missing four games with a lower-body injury and provided the secondary assist, giving him a point in his last 13 home games.
Blue Jackets defensemen have scored an NHL-leading 32 goals this season.
Doan tied the score on a tap-in from the far post at 11:26 for his second goal in as many games before Gaunce’s short-handed goal with 5:56 left in the period — the second of his career and the season — put Columbus back in front.
Recommended for you
Voronkov made it 3-1 three minutes later, dribbling the puck past Luukkonen. Olivier used a backhander to give Columbus its three-goal lead at 8:04 of the second period.
The Sabres pulled Luukkonen with 9:08 remaining, and Sillinger made them pay with an empty-netter less than a minute later.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO
personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who
make comments. Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,
racist or sexually-oriented language. Don't threaten. Threats of harming another
person will not be tolerated. Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone
or anything. Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on
each comment to let us know of abusive posts. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Anyone violating these rules will be issued a
warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be
revoked.
Please purchase a Premium Subscription to continue reading.
To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.
We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.
A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means you’re helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.