The Buffalo Sabres bounce back from a 5-2 loss to the Red Wings in Detroit on Thursday with their own 5-2 win over the Wings at KeyBank Center on Saturday afternoon. Tage Thompson scored a pair of goals in the victory, with Josh Norris, Rasmus Dahlin, and rookie Radim Mrtka adding singles. Alex Lyon went all the way for the Sabres, making 26 saves in the contest.
Just after the game, the club announced a massive 24-player roster cut, demoting 15 players to AHL Rochester Americans; forwards Riley Fiddler-Schultz, Konsta Helenius, Tyler Kopff, Olivier Nadeau, Viktor Neuchev, Isak Rosen and Anton Wahlberg, defensemen Isaac Belliveau, Vsevolod Komarov, Zach Metsa, Nikita Novikov, and Jack Rathbone, and goaltenders Topias Leinonen, Devon Levi and Scott Ratzlaff.
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Rathbone was placed on waivers and cleared on Sunday, enabling him to be sent to the Amerks, as were nine players on AHL contracts: forwards Matteo Costantini, Jagger Joshua, Trevor Kuntar, Redmond Savage, Graham Slaggert, Brendan Warren, and defensemen Aiden Fulp, Noah Laaouan, and Peter Tischke.
Helenius, 19, played well during the exhibition slate for the Sabres, but will benefit from more AHL experience and could be an option for an NHL call-up later in the season if he continues to progress. Rosen will be embarking on his fourth AHL campaign after leading the Amerks in scoring last season, while Levi (who was an AHL All-Star but went 2-7-0 in nine games with Buffalo last season) seems destined to play another year in Rochester, with Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen healthy, and veterans Alex Lyon and Alexandar Georgiev ahead of him on the depth chart.
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