Sabres blitz Blackhawks with 9-goal effort

Ryan McLeod and Mattias Samuelsson scored eight seconds apart in the second period to help the Buffalo Sabres to a 9-3 win against the visiting Chicago Blackhawks on Friday evening.

It was the fastest two goals by the Sabres since Cody Hodgson and Nathan Gerbe scored six seconds apart on April 19, 2013, in an 8-4 win against the New York Rangers.

Josh Doan scored two goals, Jason Zucker had a goal and two assists, McLeod, Tage Thompson, Jack Quinn, Bowen Byram and Jacob Bryson each had a goal and an assist, Alex Tuch had four assists, and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 20 saves for the Sabres, who had lost six of their past eight.

Tyler Bertuzzi scored two goals, Alex Vlasic also scored, Sam Rinzel and Connor Bedard each had two assists, and Arvid Soderblom made 21 saves for the Blackhawks, who were coming off a 3-2 loss to the Seattle Kraken on Thursday in which they blew a two-goal lead in the third period.

The Sabres took a 1-0 lead over Chicago at 13:57 of the first period when Doan scored his own rebound after redirecting a pass from Thompson.

Zucker, who had missed the previous eight games with an illness, scored with a one-timer from the left hash marks 1:22 later to extend the lead to 2-0.

The Sabres went on a power play shortly afterward, and Byram redirected a shot pass from Tuch to extend the lead to 3-0 at 17:33.

Chicago scored before the end of the period when Bertuzzi got to a rebound in front of the crease and backhanded it into the net to make it 3-1 at 18:12.

McLeod scored from the right hash marks at 5:42 of the second, and Samuelsson hit the net with another wrist shot from just inside the blue line to make it 5-1 at 5:50.

Vlasic cut it to 5-2 at 14:45, but the Sabres re-established the four-goal lead when Doan scored his second goal of the game at 17:31 of the second to make it 6-2.

Bertuzzi scored on a power play 24 seconds into the third period to cut it to 6-3, but the Sabres again answered quickly when Thompson scored for the fifth straight game to make it 7-3 at 1:56.

Quinn scored from the high slot for an 8-3 lead at 7:07, and Bryson made it 9-3 with 3:38 left.