Buffalo Sabres vs. Vegas Golden KnightsMar 17, 2026

FinalTuesday, Mar 17, 2026· T-Mobile Arena

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Goals	1	2	3	T		Shots	1	2	3	T
BUF	1	0	1	2		BUF	10	9	6	25
VGK	0	0	0	0		VGK	11	9	9	29

: BUF 50VGK 63
: BUF 3.03VGK 3.08
PP goals: BUF 0VGK 0
Hits: BUF 19VGK 28
Blocks: BUF 14VGK 12
PIM: BUF 8VGK 6
: BUF 49%VGK 51%

Fantasy takeaways

Generated from the play-by-play, shifts and season context. No opinions, just what changed.

Buffalo Sabres beat Vegas Golden Knights 2–0

Buffalo Sabres beat Vegas Golden Knights 2–0 at VGK. Josh Norris (BUF) led the scoring with 1G 0A. VGK scored 0 goals on 3.08 expected goals (63 attempts), well short of its chances.

Luck
VGK scored 0 goals on 3.08 expected goals (63 attempts), well short of its chances.
New line
New look for BUF: Carrick–Malenstyn–Kozak skated 7:33 together at 5v5 as the L3 trio (53.8% of the shot attempts), a combination not used in the team's last 5 games.Carrick Malenstyn Kozak
Usage
Cole Smith (VGK) played 10:03, −3:17 down on his 13:20 season average over 62 games.Smith
Usage
Nic Dowd (VGK) played 11:17, −3:18 down on his 14:35 season average over 74 games.Dowd
Usage
Sam Carrick (BUF) played 13:40, +3:14 up on his 10:26 season average over 72 games.Carrick
PP1
VGK's PP1 (Stone, Hertl, Eichel, Marner and Dorofeyev) went scoreless in 4:34 of 5v4 time with 7 attempts.Stone Hertl Eichel Marner Dorofeyev

Shot map

Both teams on one rink, filtered by strength and period.

Shot map

Every attempt, sized by expected goals. Goals are rings, shots on goal dots, misses hollow, blocks crosses.

Strength

Period

Team

← BUF attacks left (bottom on phones)VGK attacks right (top on phones) →

VGK
BUF
Goal
Shot on goal
Missed
Blocked

Showing 113 of 113 attempts · VGK 63 · BUF 50

Game flow

Cumulative expected goals and shot attempts, with power plays shaded and goals marked.

Cumulative shot attempts

VGK
BUF
Goal
Power play (shaded)

Pressure Index

VGK pressure
BUF pressure
Goal
Control (|PI| > 0.25)

: descriptive only, the team with more pressure scored the next goal about half the time. In control: BUF 25% of the game, VGK 34%.

Shift chart

Every shift, grouped by line and pair; bars are coloured by strength state. Click a player to highlight.

Shifts

VGK

BUF

goals / penalties

Even strength
Power play
Penalty kill
Goal
Penalty

Head-to-head matchups

VGK skaters (rows) against BUF skaters (columns) at 5v5. Square size is time together; colour is xGF% from the VGK side.

Matchup matrix

VGK xGF% 4060square size = TOI together · blank = under 1:00

Sequence card

5-on-5 possession-chain numbers from the sequence engine (Draw Equity and control cover all situations).

Sequence card
Stat	BUF	VGK
	48	62
	2.12	2.84
	2.05	2.74
	12	10
	6	1
	29	13
	−0.002	+0.002
	25%	34%

Definitions: sequence xG, transition attempts, Draw Equity, control and the Pressure Index.

Lines used

Detected from who actually shared the ice, with time together. Percentages are the unit's share of shot attempts.

Buffalo Sabres

L1Thompson – Ostlund – Benson
11:3438% CF
L2Zucker – McLeod – Quinn
10:3425% CF
L3Carrick – Malenstyn – Kozak
7:3354% CF
L4Norris – Krebs – Doan
6:5457% CF
D1Byram – Power
15:2735% CF
D2Samuelsson – Dahlin
14:1239% CF
D3Stanley – Metsa
9:4452% CF

PP1Zucker – Thompson – Norris – Dahlin – Doan
2:37100% CF
PP2McLeod – Byram – Quinn – Ostlund – Benson
1:23100% CF
PK1FMalenstyn – McLeod
2:27
PK2FCarrick – Benson
1:27
PK1DStanley – Samuelsson
3:57
PK2DDahlin – Byram
0:57

Current BUF line combinations →

Vegas Golden Knights

L1Sissons – Howden – Bowman
10:2148% CF
L2Hertl – Marner – Dorofeyev
10:0279% CF
L3Stone – Barbashev – Eichel
9:5952% CF
L4Dowd – Kolesar – Smith
7:2655% CF
D1McNabb – Theodore
15:2360% CF
D2Hanifin – Andersson
15:1252% CF
D3Lauzon – Korczak
12:4962% CF

PP1Stone – Hertl – Eichel – Marner – Dorofeyev
4:34100% CF
PP2Theodore – Barbashev – Andersson – Howden – Bowman
1:08100% CF
PK1FSissons – Marner
1:11
PK2FDowd – Smith
0:50
PK1DHanifin – Andersson
2:15
PK2DTheodore – Lauzon
0:42

Current VGK line combinations →

Scoring summary

Every goal with the skaters on the ice for it.

1st period

18:02
BUFJosh Doanbackhand0.08 xG
BUF: Stanley, Norris, Krebs, Doan, MetsaVGK: Stone, Barbashev, Hanifin, Andersson, Eichel
BUF 1 – 0 VGK

3rd period

19:02
BUFJosh NorrisEN (Peyton Krebs, Mattias Samuelsson)wrist0.84 xG
BUF: Norris, Samuelsson, Dahlin, Krebs, DoanVGK: Stone, Hertl, Hanifin, Eichel, Marner, Dorofeyev
BUF 2 – 0 VGK

Box score

Skaters grouped by the line they played on; CF% is the 5v5 share of shot attempts while on the ice.

Buffalo Sabres

BUF skaters
Skater	Line	G	A	P	+/-			Hits	Blk	PIM		PP	SH
Tage Thompson C	L1	0	0	0	0	0	0.19	2	2	0	19:21	—	—	42	46
Zach Benson L	L1	0	0	0	0	5	0.46	1	0	0	17:17	—	—	44	46
Noah Ostlund C	L1	0	0	0	0	0	0.04	0	0	2	15:46	—	—	36	43
Ryan McLeod C	L2	0	0	0	0	0	0.00	1	0	0	16:58	—	—	35	17
Jack Quinn R	L2	0	0	0	0	2	0.27	1	1	0	15:41	—	—	30	21
Jason Zucker L	L2	0	0	0	0	1	0.04	1	0	0	14:55	—	—	22	9
Sam Carrick C	L3	0	0	0	0	0	0.00	1	0	2	13:40	—	—	43	24
Beck Malenstyn L	L3	0	0	0	0	0	0.06	4	2	0	12:30	—	—	58	31
Tyson Kozak C	L3	0	0	0	0	1	0.11	4	0	0	11:10	—	—	41	29
Josh Doan R	L4	1	0	1	+2	3	0.21	1	0	0	13:30	—	—	55	83
Josh Norris C	L4	1	0	1	+2	5	1.40	0	2	0	13:28	—	—	63	88
Peyton Krebs C	L4	0	1	1	+2	0	0.00	1	0	0	11:10	—	—	58	82
Owen Power D	D1	0	0	0	0	0	0.00	0	1	2	21:41	—	—	38	24
Bowen Byram D	D1	0	0	0	0	1	0.02	1	1	2	21:31	—	—	36	42
Rasmus Dahlin D	D2	0	0	0	+1	3	0.15	0	0	0	22:51	—	—	45	44
Mattias Samuelsson D	D2	0	1	1	+1	1	0.06	0	4	0	22:20	—	—	38	45
Logan Stanley D	D3	0	0	0	+1	1	0.02	1	1	0	16:18	—	—	46	44
Zach Metsa D	D3	0	0	0	+1	2	0.01	0	0	0	11:53	—	—	62	62

BUF goalies
Goalie	Dec	SA	SV	GA			TOI
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen(start)	W	29	29	0	.1000	3.08	60:00

Vegas Golden Knights

VGK skaters
Skater	Line	+/-			Hits	Blk	PIM		PP	SH
Braeden Bowman R	L1	0	1	0.31	0	1	2	14:04	—	—	47	73
Brett Howden C	L1	0	2	0.08	3	1	2	13:56	—	—	48	75
Colton Sissons C	L1	0	2	0.11	2	2	0	13:49	—	—	43	68
Mitch Marner R	L2	-1	1	0.28	0	0	0	22:23	—	—	69	65
Tomas Hertl C	L2	-1	3	0.49	5	0	0	17:39	—	—	85	72
Pavel Dorofeyev R	L2	-1	3	0.17	0	0	0	17:18	—	—	84	69
Jack Eichel C	L3	-2	2	0.08	0	0	0	20:06	—	—	50	35
Mark Stone R	L3	-2	3	0.44	1	1	0	19:10	—	—	52	37
Ivan Barbashev L	L3	-1	1	0.03	2	0	0	14:31	—	—	58	39
Nic Dowd C	L4	0	1	0.10	3	0	0	11:17	—	—	47	44
Keegan Kolesar R	L4	0	0	0.03	3	1	0	10:40	—	—	53	51
Cole Smith R	L4	0	0	0.08	4	0	0	10:03	—	—	63	72
Shea Theodore D	D1	0	3	0.20	0	0	0	20:37	—	—	58	51
Brayden McNabb D	D1	0	3	0.32	2	1	2	18:37	—	—	58	50
Rasmus Andersson D	D2	-1	0	0.27	0	2	0	21:15	—	—	52	47
Noah Hanifin D	D2	-2	2	0.03	0	1	0	20:23	—	—	53	48
Jeremy Lauzon D	D3	0	2	0.06	3	1	0	15:40	—	—	67	93
Kaedan Korczak D	D3	0	0	0.00	0	1	0	13:03	—	—	64	93

VGK goalies
Goalie	Dec	SA	SV	GA			TOI
Adin Hill(start)	L	24	23	1	.958	2.19	59:29

Goal anatomy

Animated replays from NHL EDGE tracking, with the entry, passes and shot speed for each goal.

Josh Doan (BUF) 1st 18:02 · unassisted · Rebound · dumped in · 3-on-2 at the blue line · 16.8 mph shot · 3.9 s from entry to goal.

Josh Doan · 1st 18:02 · BUF

Play: rebound
Entry: dump
Odd man: 3-on-2
Passes: 0
Shot: 16.8 mph
Distance: 10 ft
Entry to goal: 3.9 s
Type: rebound

Watch on NHL.com → · Tracking-derived via NHL EDGE

Josh Norris · 3rd 19:02 · BUF EN

Play: rush
Entry: pass
Odd man: No
Passes: 1
Shot: 75.6 mph
Distance: 33 ft
Entry to goal: 2.0 s

Watch on NHL.com → · Tracking-derived via NHL EDGE

Methodology

Shot locations come from the NHL play-by-play, normalised so each shooter attacks the same way, then flipped so the home team attacks right. On-ice stats and lines come from the shift charts: a unit is the exact set of skaters sharing the ice, and CF% is the share of all shot attempts while they were out. Head-to-head cells are 5v5 time against each opponent. Expected goals and the Pressure Index appear as their models are released.