Lyon makes 23 saves, Sabres shut out Sharks for 3rd straight win

Sam Carrick scored twice, and Rasmus Dahlin had a goal and an assist for the Sabres (43-20-6), who have won three straight and 11 of 12. Lyon earned his third shutout of the season and his seventh in the NHL.

“I thought their compete early on, they had a higher level than ours. Our goaltender gave us some great saves,” Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff said. “I thought we passed up a couple of opportunities, then we got rolling offensively.”

Buffalo has a four-point lead over the Tampa Bay Lightning for first place in the Atlantic Division and is tied with the Carolina Hurricanes for first place in the Eastern Conference. 

Alex Nedeljkovic made 11 saves for the Sharks (32-29-6), who have lost three in a row. San Jose is two points behind the Los Angeles Kings for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference.

“Just some details in our game,” San Jose coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “Some line-change stuff, playing the defensive side of pucks, really, in all three zones. … Those would be the main areas [of improvement].”

The Sabres scored three times in a 1:43 span in the second period to take a three-goal lead.

Noah Ostlund made it 1-0 at 9:05. The rebound from Josh Doan‘s shot bounced off the end boards in front to Ostlund, who put the puck in off Nedeljkovic from a sharp angle.

“We had a good first period. I thought [we] came out pretty well, and then, yeah, it was kind of a snowball effect after their first goal,” Sharks defenseman Mario Ferraro said.

Carrick pushed the lead to 2-0 at 9:41 when he buried a wrist shot from above the right face-off circle into the top left corner off a drop pass from Dahlin.

Dahlin extended it to 3-0 at 10:48. Jason Zucker shielded a defender as he broke into the zone and sent a cross-crease pass for Dahlin to tap in past Nedeljkovic’s right pad.

“They didn’t know I was coming. [Zucker] made a great play on the backhand, and it was just for me to put it in the net,” Dahlin said.