Byram's empty-netter stands as winner to lift Sabres past Islanders 4-3
Bowen Byram flipped a long shot into an empty net with 1:43 remaining to lead the Buffalo Sabres to a 4-3 victory over the New York Islanders on Tuesday night
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Bowen Byram flipped a long shot into an empty net with 1:43 remaining to lead the Buffalo Sabres to a 4-3 victory over the New York Islanders on Tuesday night.
The Sabres became the NHL’s 11th franchise to reach 2,000 wins — and the first team not added in the league’s first expansion in 1967 when the NHL went from six teams to 12. Buffalo joined in the second wave of expansion joining the NHL with Vancouver in 1970.
Jack Quinn and Tage Thompson had a goal and an assist, and Peyton Krebs also scored for the Sabres, who reached 100 points for the 10th time in franchise history and first since finishing with 100 in 2009-10. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 25 saves for the Sabres.
Brayden Schenn, Calum Ritchie and Anders Lee scored, and Bo Horvat added three assists for the Islanders. Ilya Sorokin made 29 saves.
Some three minutes after Lee tied the game at 2, Krebs scored with 3:01 left.
Alex Tuch set it up by circling the Islanders net and feeding Krebs in front for a one-timer.
And Bowen Byram sealed it by flipping a long shot into an empty net with 1:43 remaining.
Schenn scored with 1 second left, bringing the Islanders within 1.
Right off the faceoff to start the third period, Lee and Sam Carrick fought. While Carrick threw punches with his right hand, his left arm was tied up in Lee's jersey at an awkward angle. As Carrick spun and was taken down to the ice, he landed hard. He remained down in obvious pain before leaving for the locker room.
Recommended for you
Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff confirmed after the game Carrick injured his left arm in the fight.
The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
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 This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.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.