Sabres win third straight, keep Canucks winless

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Victor Olofsson had two goals and an assist to help the visiting Buffalo Sabres to a 5-1 win against the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday.

Rasmus Dahlin had a goal and an assist and Casey Mittelstadt and Rasmus Asplund each had two assists for the Sabres, who have won three straight. Craig Anderson made 29 saves.

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Conor Garland scored and Thatcher Demko made 22 saves for the Canucks, who are winless through their first six games.

Dahlin scored for a fifth straight game to give Buffalo a 1-0 lead on the power play at 5:35 of the first period when Mittelstadt fed Dahlin above the slot for a shot through traffic. With the tally, he became the first defenseman in Sabres history to record a five-game goal streak at any point in a season. He also became the first defenseman in NHL history to begin a season with a five-game goal streak.

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Alex Tuch made it 2-0 at 15:18. Jeff Skinner won a battle behind the net to take the puck out front. The puck bobbled through several sticks before Skinner got his stick on it to push it to Tuch, who fired from the inner hashmarks of the right circle, beating Demko stick side.

The Canucks controlled the play in the second period, holding the visitors to three shots on goal for much of the frame.

Anderson snared a point shot from Kyle Burroughs through traffic just over a minute into the middle period and less than a minute later stopped Garland from the slot.

Garland wouldn’t be denied later in the period. With time ticking down on a Vancouver power play, Tanner Pearson sent a no-look backhand pass from the goal line at the side of the net to Garland in the left circle to cut it to 2-1 at 13:27.

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Olofsson pushed it to 3-1 off an odd-man rush at 1:54 of the third period. Mittelstadt sent a cross-ice pass to Olofsson, who ripped a one-timer from the right circle.

Zemgus Girgensons scored into an empty net at 16:31 to extend it to 4-1 and Olofsson made it 5-1 at 17:21 from the low slot.

Sabers defenseman Mattias Samuelsson left the game early in the second period with a lower-body injury after getting tangled with Canucks forward Curtis Lazar in the corner.

–Field Level Media

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